Policy Centre welcomes Scrutiny report on secondary education

On 9 December the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel published a report Secondary Education Funding. A key finding in the report was that “there is a disconnect between the current system of academic selection in secondary education and the Government’s ambition to provide an inclusive education”.

The Centre submitted evidence to the panel. Key points made in the evidence included –

• Jersey has an unusual secondary school structure; there is a high degree of selection and the absence of schools offering free education for the entire secondary school age range. There is no rationale for selection at 14; it is damaging to the schools who lose those students and to the students who remain.
• There is a stated aim “to build an education system that is comparable to, or better than, other high performing jurisdictions”. However, there are no arrangements to assess how effective Jersey is in achieving this aim. Jersey’s practice is to make very limited evaluation of the performance of its schools and to publish very little on attainment levels.
• The reports under the Jersey Schools Review Framework are thin in respect of attainment and to the extent that comparisons are made they take no account at the different starting points of students.

The Centre’s evidence is extensively quoted in the report. Two of the recommendations are in line with the Centre’s evidence.
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The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning should consider wider and more transparent publication of school exam results and the Jersey 8 analysis, to ensure that there are meaningful value add figures publicly available for each secondary school.

The system of academically selective transfer at age 14 should be reviewed. The Panel believes that the terms of reference for the review should include a focus on how to improve choice and the whole secondary school experience for pupils attending the non-fee-paying Government schools.

Commenting on the report, the Centre’s Senior Adviser Sir Mark Boleat said -

The Centre warmly welcomes the report as a good example of a well-researched evidence-based analysis of key issues. The Centre’s evidence was also well-researched, drawing on analysis from Jersey, the UK and internationally. The government now has the evidence it needs in order to take the necessary action in respect of the secondary school structure and the way that attainment levels are measured and compared.

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