Amendment Designed To Give States Choice

The States will be asked to re-affirm their support for the policy previously approved by the Assembly on the future of secondary and post-16 education.

P&R has submitted an Amendment to the Requête on education, which is due to be debated next week.

The Committee’s President and Vice-President attended the recent protest march and have submitted the Amendment after acknowledging the concerns from both the community and the teaching profession, in light of the developing picture of facilities and traffic management plans for the two colleges of Lisia School.

Deputies Gavin St Pier and Lyndon Trott say that unlike the Requête, this Amendment seeks to keep current work streams on track
while also considering the concerns of the community. It seeks to provide a platform whereby the States’ can re-commit, or
otherwise, to key policy decisions previously made but also requires ESC to submit a full business case that includes a comparison of two and three site models, with a co-located Sixth Form Centre as one model for inclusion.

The States is also asked, through this Amendment, whether it wishes to continue to delegate authority to P&R to approve expenditure up to the limits previously agreed by the Assembly. It also asks the States to re-affirm, or otherwise, that all students in secondary and post-16 education must have access to a purpose-built 11 to 18 School, operating as one organisation in constituent colleges or campuses, and a purpose-built Guernsey Institute operating as one organisation providing vocational, professional and technical education for full-time and part-time students, including apprentices.

Deputy Lyndon Trott, said: ‘This is an Amendment designed to offer the States choice on this crucially important issue. In my many years in politics I have never encountered such strong views from a large section of our community on a policy decision of the States that is so far down the road to delivery. And those views cannot, and must not, be ignored.

‘The Policy & Resources Committee both recognises those concerns, from the community and the teaching profession about the currently agreed plans, but also recognises the Requête potentially re-opens the broad discussion on secondary, and unintentionally, tertiary education provision where there is clearly far more support.

'Therefore the Policy & Resources Committee is laying this Amendment to provide leadership on this issue, so that the States of Deliberation may re-affirm, or otherwise, their support for previous educational policy principles it agreed in January 2018 and again in September 2019.’