Deputy Matt Fallaize said in a statement that he respected the views of those who went on the march, and also praised the sincerity with which they hold those views.
But that statement also gave no indication ESC would be changing its stance on continuing to move the current plans forward.
A People Power Guernsey spokesperson said: “[We] would like to thank each and every one of the thousands of people who turned up and joined them in the march on Sunday. Together we created a real wave of people power, which we feel cannot be ignored.
“The standard response from Deputy Fallaize was to be expected but we find it slightly disrespectful to all those who attended on Sunday. We were heartened that over 2500 people turned up on a cold and wet February day and note that Deputy Fallaize is just one voice in the States of Deliberation.”
Absolute rubbish. The two school solution is designed to ensure effective setting and the provision of proper choice of GCSE courses. This size issue has been well understood in education circles for more than 50 years. Guernsey is NOT experimenting.
— Caroline McManus (@bowkercj) February 4, 2020
Public debate has continued vigorously outside since the march.
The next step for the protestors of Education’s plans will be to win over as many deputies as they can to support the “pause and delay” requête. Whether that requête succeeds brining about a pause in the transformation programme, or kills off the two-school model completely is yet to be seen, but publicly, the deputies behind it are just claiming to want a comparison of a number of models to happen in the States.
Deputy Fallaize has said those same deputies need to be honest about what they really want, though.
People Power’s spokesperson added: “We would like to thank those Deputies who came on Sunday and remind them how important their voice and vote will be in March to the people of Guernsey, teachers and students.”
Pictured top: The protest march on Sunday saw more than 2,500 people attend.