Last evening’s public meeting at the Hotel Metropole on the proposed restructuring of Powys’ schools was quite revealing. It transpires that the leaked document was the product of one person, a civil servant from WAG on secondment to Powys County Council.
Apparently four of Powys’ secondary heads had met once with this civil servant to agree the “framework” of this schools review and thereafter the civil servant went away to write up her proposals. Hardly a serious consideration of this important issue. No costings, no analysis, no appreciation at all of the impact these proposals might have on the dispersed and economically struggling communities of Powys. Simply a bit of woolly, blue-skies thinking, a crude attempt at desk-top modelling.
The really annoying thing was the reaction of the county councillors present. Their general message was the leak of the document was a ‘good thing’ because it brought the issue out into the open. Some even went so far as to say that until the document was leaked, they had little or no idea that such a document was being considered. Pathetic.
If this was so, then what the hell were they doing? We, the electorate, have the right to expect our elected representatives to have at least a basic appreciation of what the council officers are up to. Moreover, I would expect some of them, those with some knowledge of educational issues, to be actively involved in drawing up plans for our schools. But all they could say was “We didn’t know, we haven’t had the opportunity to be involved”.
It is absolutely clear that we are not well-served by the present crop of county councillors. If those present at the meeting are typical of all 73 of them, then they are well and truly being given the run around by the council’s officers.
The true indication of the quality of these councillors was exemplified by the contribution from County Councillor Gary Price who began by intimating that the schools issue was too important to used for political point-scoring and then proceeded to try and score petty political points. He alleged that he had tried to persuade his group leader, Cllr David Jones, the portfolio-holder for schools, to withdraw the document earlier this week, and how it was left up to the Conservatives to actually propose such a motion, clearly implying that responsibility for the document lies solely with the so-called Powys Administration, the name of a loose alliance of the Powys Independents and the Welsh Liberal Democrats that is trying to bring some semblance of much needed political leadership to what appears to be an increasingly dysfunctional council.
All that Councillor Price wants to do is to blame every ill and fault of the Council’s on Powys Administration when the reality is that ALL 73 councillors bear a collective responsibility for what is done in the Council’s name, including Councillor Price himself. It is high time that Counciilor Price and some of his colleagues realised that they have wider responsibilities than simply pretending to be the mouthpiece of their constituents, these councillors are expected to exercise leadership and sound judgment on the difficult issues of policy and not simply try to exonerate themselves as individuals when the going gets tough.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Friday, 22 January 2010
It's All About Educational Standards Rather Than Simply Saving Money
I had nade a New Year's Resolution to wind up this blog as I prepare to leave the area later in the year.
However, I was infuriated this morning to receive an e-mail from a former colleague on Powys County Council inviting me to join a Facebook group seeking to ”Save Gwernyfed High School”. No doubt this is a worthy cause, however, I can’t help thinking that the County Councillor in question would be better employed by concentrating the focus of his efforts on ensuring the County Council creates a sensible policy for the restructuring of secondary and further education in Powys.
I have seen the latest version of the Council’s proposals and considered the four options that are listed, and I am amazed by the poor quality and lack of vision of what is being suggested. This is a long way away from an exciting vision of the future of secondary and further education in Powys, rather it is a thoroughly downbeat, depressing and defensive document that bears the hallmark of WAG muddled thinking on how to implement the 14-19 curriculum designed for densely popoulated urban areas in an authority which is sparsely populated and rural. The document is nothing more than a clumsy attempt to shoehorn Powys scholls and their pupils into a muddled and inappropriate model secondary education dreamt up by civil servants and failed practitioners in a dark room somewhere in Cardiff.
When are the councillors and, more importantly, the Welsh Assembly Government who sit in their plush offices in Cardiff going to understand the simple message that one size does not fit all? A neat desk-top model sitting on a desk in Cardiff Bay will not necessarily be the most appropriate solution on the ground in Powys. They need to remember that bussing pupils a few miles across Cardiff is a minor logistical problem compared with bussing pupils the considerable distances between population centres in Powys.
One has the right to expect that, after all the money that the County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government have spent employing consultants to advise them on the best solution to the problem of falling secondary school rolls and the increasing costs of providing a quality education for Powys school children, they could at least come up with something better than this version 8 of the secondary schools review.
It grieves me that the council is no further ahead with this restructuring than they were three years ago when I was involved with earlier versions of the document. Indeed, one could plausibly argue that the situation is worse now than it was then. Two or three years ago the process was driven by a clear vision of the need to maintain the excellent standards that exist in Powys schools, this current version of the review document is all too clearly focused on saving money.
So I would say to Powys County Councillors, before you man the barricades to save this or that school in defiance of your own proposals, get your fingers out, sack the consultants and devise a policy that you own and have faith in. That’s what you were elected for – get on with it.
However, I was infuriated this morning to receive an e-mail from a former colleague on Powys County Council inviting me to join a Facebook group seeking to ”Save Gwernyfed High School”. No doubt this is a worthy cause, however, I can’t help thinking that the County Councillor in question would be better employed by concentrating the focus of his efforts on ensuring the County Council creates a sensible policy for the restructuring of secondary and further education in Powys.
I have seen the latest version of the Council’s proposals and considered the four options that are listed, and I am amazed by the poor quality and lack of vision of what is being suggested. This is a long way away from an exciting vision of the future of secondary and further education in Powys, rather it is a thoroughly downbeat, depressing and defensive document that bears the hallmark of WAG muddled thinking on how to implement the 14-19 curriculum designed for densely popoulated urban areas in an authority which is sparsely populated and rural. The document is nothing more than a clumsy attempt to shoehorn Powys scholls and their pupils into a muddled and inappropriate model secondary education dreamt up by civil servants and failed practitioners in a dark room somewhere in Cardiff.
When are the councillors and, more importantly, the Welsh Assembly Government who sit in their plush offices in Cardiff going to understand the simple message that one size does not fit all? A neat desk-top model sitting on a desk in Cardiff Bay will not necessarily be the most appropriate solution on the ground in Powys. They need to remember that bussing pupils a few miles across Cardiff is a minor logistical problem compared with bussing pupils the considerable distances between population centres in Powys.
One has the right to expect that, after all the money that the County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government have spent employing consultants to advise them on the best solution to the problem of falling secondary school rolls and the increasing costs of providing a quality education for Powys school children, they could at least come up with something better than this version 8 of the secondary schools review.
It grieves me that the council is no further ahead with this restructuring than they were three years ago when I was involved with earlier versions of the document. Indeed, one could plausibly argue that the situation is worse now than it was then. Two or three years ago the process was driven by a clear vision of the need to maintain the excellent standards that exist in Powys schools, this current version of the review document is all too clearly focused on saving money.
So I would say to Powys County Councillors, before you man the barricades to save this or that school in defiance of your own proposals, get your fingers out, sack the consultants and devise a policy that you own and have faith in. That’s what you were elected for – get on with it.
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