Political Uncertainty Causes Teacher Resignations

Secondary School teachers have been resigning and taking up jobs at the colleges because of the uncertainty over whether the new schools will get backing from deputies.

The news was revealed at a Scrutiny hearing held with the Education Committee. It was originally scheduled for the spring, but was postponed over concerns about sensitive information being live streamed on Youtube, as all hearings can be accessed this way.

Committee president Andrea Dudley-Owen told the hearing that a number of teachers had either left or had taken jobs with the private colleges, because, at this stage, it's unclear whether Health or Education will get the majority backing for its major building projects:

"As a result of political prevarication and uncertainty, we are driving away extremely good staff from our secondary schools."

She also revealed that the Transforming Secondary Education building programme could now cost £140M - up from just over £100M - and that talks were ongoing with potential builders following the decision not to continue with R G Falla.

Senior Education civil servant Ed Gowan said that it was important that deputies voted to build new schools:

"I genuinely believe we're at a point now where if we do not make investment in the short term in our physical estate, we will be spending more, and we will be wasting money maintaining buildings beyond the end of their life." 

The Scrutiny Panel heard that Education is employing 45 agency teachers, with their accommodation costs being paid by the committee. The length of their contracts depends on whose position they are covering.

Guernsey's director of education told the hearing that a report on the success of measures being taken to address a poor Oftsed report at St Sampsons High will be ready soon:

Inspectors made a second visit to the school at the end of June, following their original report last summer, when it was rated 'inadequate,' with issues around bullying, absenteeism and disrespect for teachers.

Nick Hynes says he's hopeful the interim report will be positive:

"There was a monitoring inspection visit just last week. We're hopeful we'll get that report back from Ofsted before the end of term, and that will give the community, and children and young people, confidence that the school is making good progress against the areas for development that were identified."