Steere condemns public critics of Education staff and director

Friday 27th January 2012, 2:29PM GMT.

POLITICIANS who publicly criticised officers of the Education Department, including director of education Derek Neale, have been condemned by the former minister.

Deputy Carol Steere, pictured, widened yesterday’s debate over whether the role of the Public Sector Remuneration Committee should be absorbed by the Policy Council to talk about how States members had acted as ‘employers’ in the wake of the GCSE result saga.

She explained how disappointed she was with the ‘campaign’ by the Guernsey Press and politicians against Education staff members and the director of education.

She said that more needed to be done to protect civil servants.

But Deputy Dave Jones said sometimes members of the civil service were at fault.

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View more: Carol Steere news, Education Department news.

1
Gsyman

January 27, 2012 at 5:32 pm

The Duracell ex-minister just goes on and on…..

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2
allan

January 27, 2012 at 6:13 pm

GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT BETWEEN THEM BOTH THEY FAILED MANY GUERNSEY CHILDREN STOP COMPLAINING AS DEEP DOWN YOU KNOW YOUR FAILINGS

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3
Rachel

January 28, 2012 at 12:52 pm

If the department (including Carol) had conducted themselves in an open, honest and transparent way from the beginning then there would have been nothing for the press or the public to uncover. It is as simple as that. Now that it’s all out in the open lets accept the lessons learnt, implement the recommended changes for improvement and move on.

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4
Spartacus

January 28, 2012 at 2:06 pm

OK lets move on – the important thing now is that benchmarks are introduced with immediate effect so that everyone is clear about what the target is for a Guernsey selective secondary school, or High School. We need to have clear definitive guidelines of what constitutes a failing school and what is acceptable. Unfortunately Mulkerrin did not give us this, but in his new role as part time advisor to the education board I am hoping he now will.

Clearly the UK benchmark (35% of students achieving 5 GCSEs A*-C including Maths and English) is not relevant as we are not in England and Mulkerrin has explained all the advantages for England schools. So should our high schools have a lower benchmark than this?

So what is our target? While we wait for Mr Mulkerrin to let us know I would welcome suggestions from everyone and especially hope to hear from ChrisJ, Stephen John, GM and Grumpy teacher.

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- ChrisJ
  
  January 30, 2012 at 2:06 pm
  
  Nothing to add really beyond what I said here:
  
  http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2011/08/30/education-keeps-key-gcse-exam-results-secret/#comment-104158
  
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  - Spartacus
    
    January 30, 2012 at 10:02 pm
    
    ChrisJ
    
    Thanks for digging that out – a lot of common sense in there but alas much has changed since September. Your comment implying that data is not being released which could “be used to measure their performance in dealing with any problems which are identified” resonates at this time as I am hoping something measurable can be set and achieved in order to improve morale and get the momentum going towards future success again.
    
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5
grumpy teacher

January 29, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Spartacus, I have addressed the benchmarking issues under a different post. In the meantime I totally agree with Rachel above. We need to move on.

There are more skeletons in cupboards in the Education Department that could emerge if there was any form of review. It is best for the reputation of the service that the cupboards remain firmly closed and we look to the future.

This fiasco was entirely avoidable and has been building for the last five years, if not longer. Steps must be taken to ensure nothing like this ever happens again in any part of public service. In the meantime, spring is fast approaching after a long, dark winter.

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6
Zab

January 31, 2012 at 2:05 am

Though I thought Carol had to go Education are not the only bungling department, I can see why she feels singled out. Lets face it Housing talks a good job, tells us its on top of the game but look closer and the kids are failed. If you are on our waiting list your children will be grown up before we house you and you wont need housing anyway.
Social Security, “you need £x to live but we will give you substantially less than you require”, ps we know you have to fiddle to survive just dont let us catch you.
It just goes on and on complete and utter ineptitude, 5000 licences does not impact the local market, could have fooled me. I am not pointing the finger at housing or Social Security, its endemic the rest are just as bad, unfortunatly the GEP only focused on Education.

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