College scholarships cost £3m. a year
Wednesday 25th February 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
EDUCATION could save up to £3m. a year if it stopped sending top 11-plus pupils to the three private colleges.
It currently pays each college a little over £2,000 a year for every pupil. It also pays the fees of 161 special place holders each at Elizabeth and Ladies’ College, costing £9,112 and £7,564 a year respectively.
There are also 34 special place holders at Blanchelande, which is allowed up to 42, costing Education £7,429 a year each.
Education minister Carol Steere this week said that money used to subsidise the colleges could be better spent elsewhere. But Ladies’ College principal Jo Riches (pictured) said ending the subsidy would threaten the special places .
‘It would be very difficult to discuss this topic devoid of discussing the 11-plus because so much of the funding we receive from Education goes towards special place holders,’ she said.
An Education spokesman yesterday said States schools could accommodate any extra pupils that followed a change to college funding for ‘a lot less’ than the £4.5m. a year spent on the colleges.
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Thats a very true statement, the States could save over 3 million if they cut scholarship funding. Now lets look at reality and think about how much the true cost of removing these scholarships would be!!! These issues are being raised by people that feel inferior or hard done by, my experience of working with these colleges tells me that they are hugely under funded as it is. These three centres of excellence contain nothing but the determination to learn and exceed in everything that they do. In effect what your saying is that these places are too good for this island and the amazing opportunities that they offer the students that attend them should be taken away, simply due to some selfish and shallow depth views by some not so fortunate members of this community. Unfortunately wherever you go in this world it is impossible for everybody to be equal, but is it right to stop those who can do these things that make life a little special to do them?
Guernsey has one of the wealthiest economies in the world and despite hard times it would seem essential that people can look through the shortfalls of the credit crunch and focus on the future expansion of schools working closer together in more areas. Children should not be punished for their parents choices and neither should they be influenced by their views.
At what point does it become fair to punish people for their success? Either through hard work or just good luck, thats the way the cookie crumbles.
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Well done Carol for raising this again, scrap the farce of the 11+ and scholarships and rebuild our High Schools with the money saved. Lots of 10/11 year olds get extra “coaching” to pass the 11+ and recieve a free scholarship, when their parents should be paying the fees if they are so desperate for thier child to go to the College. The average tax payer would probaly like to see their money spent other secondary schools bought into the 21 century, as promised in the 11+ depbate many moons ago…
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Well
Remove the 322 special place holders from Elizabeth and Ladies colleges and the £2,179 from all secondary students and both schools will financially collapse.
Then Education will have to fully fund all 950 students, at about £6,000 per head, costing £5.7m, an extra £1.2m.
Furthermore 2 excellent schools will be lost from our community, with all the added value provided by the parent and past student contributions.
Where is the sense in that?
It is also likely that the two prep schools will fold because their students would lose eligibility for entry to the Grammar School, so in total the States would have to fund education for another 380 children at £5,000 per head, making an additional £1.9m.
So in an effort to save £4.5m we would actually have to find an extra £3.1m and we would downgrade our school standards.
No boner!
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Well having “failed” the 11+ I am just completing my second Masters Degree, I run my own international business and suprisingly I dont live in Guernsey anymore! get rid of it NOW! this would be hugely beneficial to people like me out there…past, present and future.
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What a great headline? Why not have a headline..College students save taxpayers millions a year? Each parent who pays for a student to go to the colleges saves the taxpayer £3500 per child(average cost 5500 less states generously (not) paying 2000) and has to fork out an extra 7000 to get some guarantee of quality teachers, reasonable class sizes and quality education in reasonable conditions.
If they are serious about this then they must stop new intake for next school year and give all those parents who pay a tax rebate to cover increased fees and a thank you letter for saving the taxpayer the 5500 it would have cost to educate children.
The states need to have a vote of no confidence in Carol Steere…she has no clue how to conduct “business” and having not even discussed this with her committee or put some thought into her ideas… is this a dictatorship? If kids started school at 7, how much could you save Carol !)
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I agree that there is some merit in asking wealthy families whose children gain a scholarship to the colleges to pay via means testing. I know of wealthy families who have taken their children out of private primary school in year 6 in order for them to take the 11+ (which is not open to the children in private schools). They then spend a lot of money on coaching them to pass the 11+ …….. and then save a fortune on school fees when their children gain a place at the colleges or grammar school.
If there really is no money then perhaps Education should bite the bullet – get rid of the grammar school and stop paying subsidies to the colleges. Then we may end up with 3 elitist schools and 3 good comprehensives which have excellent facilities. However, £3m is not a lot of money when the whole budget is looked at. How many ex-teachers who have retired at the age of 50 with a good pension are now employed in the Education Department or elsewhere in the States as senior civil servants – along with all the perks such as long holidays etc which they have apparently been able to keep (so i am told)? The island needs to focus on bringing money in and increasing income streams. Support local students to gain teaching degrees and then promise them jobs – this will save a substantial amount in relocation expenses and changing the teachers every 4-5 years. Think ‘outside the box’ – I hate the phrase but it sums up what i feel.
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I really don’t have a problem with people deciding the the public education provision in Guernsey is not good enough for their children, opting out, and paying for private education.
My problem is: why should I subsidise this?
What makes it even more bizarre is that this is a redistribution of funds from the less well off to the comparatively wealthy – the average income of families with children at the Colleges is obviously higher than the population at large.
Continuation of the 11 Plus on the island is a device to maintain the Colleges, of course.
It’s not like we are short of worthy alternative education projects e.g. making Beaucamp fit for human habitation.
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Parents who send their children to the independent colleges are just as entitled to state support as parents who send their children to states schools.
The States collect taxes to pay for such services. Whether they provide this through a state school or sub contract it out should not make a difference.
Any attempt by the States to unevenly distribute funds for this purpose is tantamount to social engineering.
For reference, I do not send my children to the independent colleges.
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In many cases, should the colleges not be there the state would also lose the income tax and GSSA on the additional earnings currently used to pay the school fees. About half the parents I know work longer hours (or work at all if married women) to cover the fees and additional costs.
So to get the annual EC fee of £7k (net)one must generate £10k gross. That’s possibly £3k in tax and GSSA subsidising something else. Probably the “education spokesman”.
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Just an idea-
Scrap the scholarships and set up a centre to cater for “gifted” children of all ages. (I dont really like to use the word “gifted” i would prefer to use something like “especially talented” or “especially strong potential” but will use “gifted” in this case as it seems like the simplest thing to do)
I know gifted kids have many services catering to their needs in the UK already. As far as i know there is nothing for these children in Guernsey except for this questionable scholarship system.
Kids of all ages can still attend grammar or states schools (secondary and primary) and also go to this centre for “extra” tuition in their areas of interest- either after school, weekends, break etc – specific tuition which would cater to their special needs -if they choose to do so.
This way the funding for wealthy private schools can be abolished but the kids will still be catered for. Win Win.
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Graham, you’re correct, parents who send their kids to independent schools are just as entitled to state support as those who favour states schools.
However, that state support is the state schools. Those parents sending kids to the colleges do so by their own volition. They have chosen to pay the fees and eschew state-sponsored education. How is it then fair for the tax-payer to contribute towards that private education? How is it fair to deny the state pupils the £4.5m that could be invested in their education? Is it fair to close primary schools and introduce loans for higher education to whilst allowing private education to be subsidised?
Private education is the parents choice, if they can’t afford the fees then there’s a perfectly good state system that will educate their children to a high standard for free.
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