BLOG: Education’s Last Stand

I stood outside the Royal Court Chamber on the 18th May 2016; with a long-standing States member who said to me, "I give this Education, Sport and Culture Committee one year" (he also said he doesn’t see this Policy and Resources Committee lasting the entire political term). I nodded, surmising the States member may have had a point.

Around a year later, I proclaimed Deputy Paul Le Pelley as the political man of the year, having survived a Vote of No Confidence against his committee. The majority of the committee may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with the selection debate late in 2016, but there can be no doubting that they scored a substantial political win when they emerged, perhaps not unscathed, again as the ESC Committee, with a new member in Deputy Neil Inder replacing Deputy Marc Leadbeater. Now the much maligned committee approaches the third of four key battles over their political term.

But they approach this debate on college funding, not as the united force which smashed the Vote of No Confidence into the long grass, but instead in turmoil, with divides over a core element of their progression to a non-selective system.

In the red corner (for now) we have Deputies Le Pelley, De Lisle and Inder, bringing proposals forward to slash the funding to the three grant-aided colleges to just below one million pounds a year. In the blue corner, Deputies Meerveld and Dudley-Owen whose views may not perhaps be as aligned as first expected when it comes down to the issue of college funding; but who both directly oppose the tack taken by their President and the two other political members of the committee.

The atmosphere operationally at ESC currently, with civil servants upheaved from Grange Road House and their Chief Officer Jon Buckland now sitting at Environment and Infrastructure, is all change. Malcolm Nutley is doing his best to steady the ship, while Alan Brown is determined as Director of Education, but often the former when I’ve seen him, has cut a frustrated figure. Now the committee faces its biggest political challenge – arguably a larger one than the bun fight that will follow in November/December, when their final plans for secondary education are debated.

The college funding debate is like no beast this committee has faced so far in political office. It’s not going to be the ideological left vs the stoic right like the selection debate ended up becoming. The daggers won’t be in the hands of old enemies, but instead of old friends. Namely amongst them Deputy Lyndon Trott: arguably ESC’s biggest and most vociferous backer throughout the last year, having ensured Deputy Le Pelley got the top job at ESC on 11th May 2016.

Deputy Trott has already roundly criticised the committees stance on college funding, and poked at the divide this issue has created within the group. Now the politician who you could almost guarantee to stand behind his man last year will be standing firmly in front of the three members ofthe committee backing a big drop in the funding.

Now that’s daunting enough – add to that, Deputy Gavin St Pier effectively writing his own policy letter on college funding in the last week and writing a scathing letter of comment on the policy letter (The letter could be surmised adequately as Deputy St Pier sitting in the stands chanting that well known footballing chant, often directed at referees of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’) and you are starting to see the scale of the task this Committee faces.

Now I went into the Vote of No Confidence debate believing the vote was going to be extremely tight. Another long-standing States member told me I was dead wrong and that ESC would survive comfortably. They were right, I was wrong. So my reading of the tea leaves may not be something to bet your mortgage on.

But, I see this being one hurdle too many for the current ESC committee, and one member of the board has already expressed that opinion to me in private.

The board faces a cornucopia of conundrums in the coming three days and the weeks ensuing. A board split down the centre, with political allies of old aiming the cross-hairs in their direction. Does it unite in an effort to show unity during debate, or is it every man/woman for themselves? Rumoursare circulating that one of ESC backing the drop to below a million pounds in funding could switch allegiances and back another proposal. Whilst in the background you have a Vice-President posturing for position and perhaps a presidential push, coupled with the very real likelihood of a big defeat on one of the biggest issues they will bring to the States in this term.

If ESC lose, there is a real likelihood that another Vote of No Confidence could be lodged against them and my bet is that it could come with some serious clout behind it, with a possibility that the President of P and R could be leading it. I can see Deputies Meerveld and Dudley-Owen surviving, but Deputy Le Pelley being scapegoated and cast into the political wilderness. Politics, when it comes down to education in this island is a cutthroat business and it would be disappointing to see a promising political career in Deputy Le Pelley’s cut down , especially when he has found his feet as a President and a leader.

The future for the Committee will depend on where each individual member of ESC comes down on this college funding debate. If they stand united, they stand a chance. If they remain divided, this really will be their last stand.