Education has failed its children
Thursday 29th September 2011, 3:00PM BST.
THERE is only one word to sum up Education’s approach to GCSE results: deceit.
For years islanders have been confident that their education system is to be envied, one of the many reasons people can be glad to live in Guernsey.
Over the past few months that confidence has taken blow upon blow as the true state of island schools became clear.
Yesterday, the last wall of secrecy came down to reveal a terrible truth: two out of three of the island’s high schools would be classed as failures in the UK.
It has taken months of robust questioning from this newspaper and Deputy Jane Stephens to get Education to admit to its failings. But even now, with the evidence obvious to all, it continues to bluster.
Forget the platitudes about trying to protect the children. This deception is all about protecting the bureaucrats and weak politicians who for years have let a falsehood be accepted as truth.
Even the Policy Council bought into the lie. Just this month it declared that the island’s ‘excellent education system’ must not be put at risk.
Excellent if you attend one of the colleges or the Grammar perhaps. However, the chasm between them and the failing high schools is simply unacceptable.
The figures are staggering when compared with the UK. Some schools there have a majority of pupils for whom English is a second language, who live in chronically deprived areas of high unemployment and terrible social abuse. And they still outperform our schools.
Education will say it is damaging to the pupils’ morale to have the results laid bare. No, what is damaging has been the deception that has undermined education policy for years.
How much more quickly might States members have poured money into the rebuilding programme if they had seen the real picture? Had they known the truth, deputies would surely have changed farcical housing licence laws which rob the island of good teachers just as they start to settle in.
It is not the children who have failed. It is the Education Department which has failed them.
Island Life
All about Guernsey
Ambassador of the Year 2011
History & Heritage
Visitor Information
Guernsey's government
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Useful Links
Deceit is a very strong word but, having read this blog post as well, it’s hard to argue that it’s unjustified:
http://25squaremiles.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-is-what-i-call-like-for-like.html
I wonder how long Deputy Steere and her fellow board members have really known what the Department has been up to. Is it plausible that they’ve been kept in the dark for as long as the public have?
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the Grange bunker tomorrow!
Report abuse
Yesterdays Press comment column attempted to link some of the problems at Education with Housing Licences issues. I would remind whoever wrote that particular piece that the Colleges and the Grammar school are subject to the same Housing licence regime but clearly don’t appear to have the same problems when it comes to students grades, so the licence argument does not stack up.
Dave Jones
Housing Minister
Report abuse
dave jones
do you think we are all daft?
this is the worst post you have ever posted here.
Report abuse
Well observed and noted Deputy Jones.
Education’s problem lie (in part) with a lack of leadership from those that should be leading, and who are trying to cover up Education’s failings by laying the blame at a lack of investment in buildings and infrastructure.
A high standard of education doesn’t just require good facilities, it needs people who want to teach, being allowed to educate pupils that want to learn, without being disrupted – This is helped by having the backing of parents who are not only prepared to encourage their children, but also acknowledge and support the role that teachers have, and admit their offspring’s faults when necessary.
I feel sorry for the teachers and pupils at LMDC who fall into this category. They are being tarred with the same brush as those whose only interest in is drawing attention to themselves and disrupting the lives of others.
Report abuse
Dave Jones
Housing Minister
Please, put yourself forward for CM. Your honesty means more to the masses than you could ever humbly appreciate.
You’d take a clean sweep. You have selflessly put in the hours. Reap your reward.
Honesty is what Guernsey, and the people, need right now!
All your imperfections are a refreshing change. The masses trust you. I know of many, many people that feel the same as I do.
It is in the public domain that you don’t consider yourself as the best candidate for the position. However, you are exactly what we need.
Step up to the position. Don’t allow all the hard work you have done thus far to count for very little!
I hope many others will concrete this?
Report abuse
Local
I totally agree with your comments. Furthermore, looking forward to the forthcoming election Deputy Jones is the only candidate who stands out in my mind as worthy of my vote. Unfortunately, due to where I live I will be unable to vote for him!
Report abuse
Kevin – he knows we’re daft – Carol showed him the statistics to prove it ….
Report abuse
I thank all of you for your support and we will see what happens next April.
As for Kevin I can only say which part of my post did you not understand? ALL our Schools are subject to the same housing licence regime and yet they have significantly different results. Any application by the Education department to housing to extend a licence of a particular teacher has always been dealt with on its merits and there have been some extensions through promotion or difficulty in filling a particular post or specialist subject.
Report abuse
Dave Jones,
That’s an odd argument. Yes, the Colleges and Grammar do well. Perhaps they do so in spite of the housing licence regime, and could do even better if it was changed? Or perhaps because the High Schools are well-known locally as not being the most rewarding places to teach, locally-qualified teachers are choosing to work at the Colleges and Grammar instead, leaving the High Schools in a fix?
I can think of any number of explanations which are consistent with housing licences being a major problem for the High Schools, so I think it would be unwise to make the assumption you have without consulting with recruiters for all the schools to find out where they think the problems are.
Report abuse
Chris J
Has made my argument for me when he says that. “Perhaps they do so in spite of the housing license regime”. The Housing control Laws have been in existence for 60 years or more and have served this island incredibly well. Over that period of time our schools have gone from strength to strength. There is an issue at the moment but neither I nor my Housing board members believe it has anything to do with Housing Licenses, as the evidence clearly does not support that argument. If the regime was so rigid that there was no flexibility whatsoever then Education may have a point. It is also quite wrong to assume that no teachers have been granted leave to stay over the years and when extensions have been given it has been at the request of the Education Department. The Grammar School and the Colleges work under exactly the same regime so it is the same for everybody.
Report abuse
Dave Jones
You are right. The housing licence regime cannot be blamed for the current failings of the schools. However, it is hard to find many people who are at all happy with the current need for too many good teachers to have to leave after 5 years. The reasons for such controls are obvious but a system which allowed more good teachers to stay, without landing us with too many poor ones which we then cannot get rid of, would be a massive improvement. Fully accept though that its all about striking the right balance.
Report abuse
Housing works very closely with all departments and when Education had a problem some time ago with several retirements all coming at once at Beauchamp and other issues some of which were out of their control, we worked to make sure Educations requests were met. Even after licences have been extended and this applies to all States departments, there is no guarantee that those professionals will stay in there jobs, as once they believe they have reached a critical point where they could argue that they have been here long enough that they should be allow to stay regardless, then Housing can face further challenges even though they have left the profession they originally moved to Guernsey to work in. We are then forced to issue a further replacement licence and so it goes on. We heard these same arguments with the turnover of Nurses in HSSD but nobody could explain why the turnover was just as high with those in HSSD nursing accommodation where they didn’t need licences. The children of everyone under licence who secures permanent rights to stay whether through a straight 15 year licence or through a series of extensions will also have the right to permanent residency and to obtain local market housing in their own right so from a population point of view that is not sustainable in the view of many. GM is right is has always been about a question of balance.
Report abuse