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NEXT month, States members will be asked to consider modernising the island’s supplementary benefits system aimed at introducing a single rent and income support system that has a strong focus on work and personal responsibility.

IN AN article in this newspaper last week, Public Services and its harbour master explained why deputies had to support its proposals to replace cranes at St Peter Port Harbour and why any other outcome was unthinkable.

AFTER years of darkness, a harsh light has been shone on the island’s education service. A shroud of secrecy and misinformation has been pulled aside to expose some rather unpleasant truths.

IN HIS advice to the Policy Council back in 2006 – when there were demands for an external review of the management of education in Guernsey – the then HM Procureur said politicians interfering in employment issues ought to be brought firmly under control.

ONE  of the more chilling findings of the Mulkerrin report into the provision of education locally is over the performance of the island’s primaries.

ONE of the central recommendations of the Mulkerrin report into Education is that the island’s 1970 Education Law should be urgently reviewed and updated. That’s unsurprising. Only the former Education board and its principal advisers believed it was fit for purpose.

PROBABLY the most critical question of the whole Education debacle – how things were ever allowed to get to this stage – is the one that has not been answered.

FOR a politician as under fire as the Education minister to volunteer to go on the BBC phone-in yesterday took considerable courage – and a determination to explain why the department hasn’t failed in its £75m. mission to give local children the best possible start in life.

AS SHOCK waves continue to reverberate from the publication of the Mulkerrin review into Education, a common theme will emerge: move on, learn lessons, look for improvements.

IT IS difficult to read the Mulkerrin review of education services in Guernsey without a growing sense of anger, verging on rage.