EDUCATION COMMITTEE WITHDRAWS PROPOSITIONS TO REMOVE OBLIGATION TO ACCOMMODATE SARK CHILDREN IN EDUCATION ELSEWHERE

This week saw the cancellation of an Extraordinary meeting of Chief Pleas that was to be convened to remove the Island’s Education Committee obligation to provide housing for students continuing their post-13 education in Guernsey. The original Education Committee propositions to do so had already elicited a further addendum from the Island’s Policy & Finance Committee. This would compel the Education Committee to apply for approval from Policy & Finance to provide financial assistance in excess of £10,500 for any pupil and the publication of additional guidance as to how these applications would be processed.
As a result, Sark’s Board of Education wrote to all Conseillers requesting that all propositions were withdrawn:
‘… until appropriate public consultation has been carried out and more work is done to ensure that any proposed changes to any law or ordinance in relation to Education meets all local and international obligations in respect of the education of all Sark children of mandatory school age (which is currently 16 years) and all new laws are truly in the best interest of the children and their families.’
The Education Committee withdrew its propositions the day before the Extraordinary meeting was to be held which automatically prevented the subsequent Policy & Finance addendum from continuing. Education Committee chair, Conseiller Fern Turner, said:
‘These propositions were never requested by the current committee and were put in place and actioned by our previous chair and the civil servants…We feel that following on from the recent email form the Board of Education and consultation with some Conseillers and members of the public that we would be remiss to proceed as is at this moment in time.’

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