Monday 27 January 2020
Deputy Matt Fallaize, President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, has issued a statement in response to concerns raised by schools staff.
"As the unions have acknowledged, talks have been going on involving the Committee, officials and representatives of teachers and support staff in schools. These have led to some changes being made to the detailed plans for the 11-18 colleges. We would like to continue talking to union colleagues to explore whether we can make further changes and reassure their members about the intent and pace of the changes we are leading.
The States have twice determined the policy direction and set the financial boundaries for the education reforms, but within those boundaries we will use whatever flexibility we can find to support and reassure teachers through the period of transition to the new model of education and beyond. I have advised union colleagues that we would like to meet them as soon as possible and that we would welcome a series of discussions as often as they can hold them. I hope our next meeting will be very soon.
As well as talking through ways in which we could respond positively to their concerns, I would like to talk to them about the draft requête which has not yet been submitted. Teachers have been invited to state their firm views on the requête even before having the chance to read it. The propositions in the requête on which the States will vote do not do what many teachers have been told they would do. This is not the fault of teachers, but it is something we are eager to talk through with them.
It was never going to be easy to implement educational reforms on this scale. The challenges of reform will remain even if some deputies preparing a requête pretend that kicking the can down the road will magically produce an education model supported by a majority of teachers and a majority of the public. They are peddling a myth and nearly five years of endless debate and procrastination about the future education model risks becoming five more years or even longer."
