Advised today by the Cabinet member that the Hants & IW Learning & Skills Council (LSC) - which is reponsible for post 16 education - wants to develop a £25m 1200 place 6th form college at the IW College for use from 2009, using government money. Effectively that is our entire requirement here on the Island.
As this would have massive implications for our existing sixth form provision within High Schools, the Council will ensure wide consultation in the autumn term. This will be a fascinating debate in the light of what happened over middle schools last year.......
Additionally the further £25m government grant to rebuild one of our secondary schools, may mean just that - a school for 11-16/18 year olds, not 13 -16/18. This is being clarified as agian that has implications for how Island education is organised.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
What a complete mess!
I'm currently attending several A Level courses at the Isle of Wight College, and would be firmly opposed to any such change. Despite their being official buzzwords at the minute, the creation of this new sixth form would effectively destroy educational choice and diversity.
Questions for the Learning and Skills Council:
1. Wouldn't the centralisation of post-16 education fatally undermine the benefits of attending institutions with their own ethos and approach? To take one example: I love the IW College because it treats people like adults and shows them respect - unlike most high schools' rigid control over students and subjects. Surely the unique benefits of the College would be lost under these reforms.
2. What about those students who wouldn't prosper within such a massive environment? What realistic alternatives will there be if the high school sixth forms were pushed out? Smaller, school-based provision of A Levels would be simply unsustainable, especially given the drainage of staff to the College that would take place. I study at the College because I didn't take to my former high school's approach. Under these plans I would have no such option.
3. How would the sweeping effects on Island school organisation (regarding staffing, financing, student numbers etc.) be managed? Having a three-tier system would surely make current high schools unsustainable without their post-16 students. This may require a progression to the more usual two-tier system. This rather seems like the ambitions of the College's management are being given unjustified weight over policy-making.
Then again, the Learning and Skills Council *is* the same Quango which decided to cut subsidies for post-16 part-time courses only last year (after the 2005 election, naturally), effectively quadrupling the cost of A Level courses at the IW College. I wouldn't expect them to have students' interests at heart...
Post a Comment