The Education, Sport and Culture President was speaking at a Scrutiny hearing yesterday, where her committee’s work was put under the spotlight by Deputies Yvonne Burford and Simon Fairclough and former Deputy Michelle Le Clerc.
The Scrutiny Hearing can be watched in full HERE:
In response to being asked about the transformation project, Deputy Dudley-Owen said “the strategy is in place, and now we must follow through for all our students. We’ve got to stop the politics and we’ve got to get on with the vision”.
That vision is for three 11-16 schools, at Les Varendes, Les Beaucamps and Baubigny. Post 16 education is intended to be delivered from a newly built campus at Les Ozouets covering the Guernsey Institute and the Sixth Form Centre.
The delivery of that vision has been delayed, most recently by the problems around getting the building work started at Les Ozouets after the States dropped RG Falla as its contractor.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said that any delays should not lead to more debate on the model of education, as that has already been debated in depth.
“It is two years since we presented the policy letter for the reorganisation of secondary and post 16…,” she said, “…we had considerable conversation and debate.”
Pictured: Deputy Dudley-Owen speaking at yesterday’s Scrutiny hearing.
Deputy Fairclough raised the prospect of the education projects losing their agreed States funding, if it came down to a choice between paying for the new post-16 campus or work at the hospital.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said the time for discussing the funding has passed.
“…this state’s Assembly cannot fail this generation of children,” she said.
She also said that staff need stability too, and that further disruption to the transformation of education could affect the wider population too.
“The States approved the model that the committee put forward, and as soon as that approval happened, as you would expect for any major project, the committee got on with its work. That work is now nearly two years old, and the committee didn’t stand still because it knew that we had to advance that work in order to inject the much needed certainty and stability into the education system.
“And we are very far advanced with the implementation of the the model now. In terms of the staffing structure, jobs have been ring fenced, roles have now been allocated. This is individual staff members lives. They’ve got contracts. There’s considerable risk to derailing the project at this time, and not to mention the reputational risk for Guernsey as a jurisdiction that cannot make up its mind in relation to education.
“Education is one of the first things that a family will look at when it relocates. They need to make sure that the education is fit for their children, and if we cannot commit and ensure that we’ve got that certainty, we become a less attractive jurisdiction for people to move to, for local families to stay in, because they’re unsure of what the offering is going to be.”
Pictured: Deputy Dudley-Owen was one of the signatories to a requete which led to the ‘pause and review’ of the previous transformation of education programme.
Deputy Dudley-Owen addressed concerns that she has been behind the delays previously faced by past ESC committees in trying to make changes to the education systems.
“We let go of selection. It was our possible Brexit moment. It was a very fine line and since then I personally, despite having voted to retain the system because I felt it was rather risky to let go of a system before we had another one that we could all coalesce around, I understand the need to move forward now to give the island certainty around what we want for our education system, which must be aspiring to an excellent education system for every single child on the island.”
Deputy Yvonne Burford raised the ‘pause and review’ motion specifically, which Deputy Dudley-Owen had been involved with.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said she had felt compelled to act then, as she feels compelled to continue with her committee’s plans now, as she recognised the publics’ views.
“When you are faced with a groundswell of opposition, grassroots opposition, which came from members of the public making concerns about the travel plans and the accessibility of the two colleges under the previous committee’s plans, the size of those schools and then a significant part of the workforce starting to mobilise because they felt unsure about the plans going forward. It is incumbent on deputies to listen to those grassroots concerns.
“Those grassroots concerns manifested themselves in thousands of islanders coming out in force, saying that they didn’t agree with the model that had been put forward.”
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