24/04/2012 BBC Channel Islands News

Good evening and welcome to the BBC Channel Islands. The headlines:

Farmed out - The grower who's had to cut his staff by 40% and says

the states are to blame. Unless things turn round dramatically, I

cannot see us doing what we do in the future.

Also, all change? Is the law set to change on who can run for Chief

Minister in Guernsey. And, educating our children - As

part of our series looking at Jersey's schools, should the way we

A group of French politicians and agriculture experts has been

visiting Jersey today to learn how the government supports its rural

industries. It comes as one local farmer says he might have to give

up because of a lack of support from politicians. So what is the

States doing to help farmers in the island? Not enough, says a local

grower, as Nafisa Sayani reports. It's all hands on deck at this

organic farm in St Lawrence. The workforce here has had to be cut by

nearly half because the recession's put pressure on the price of

produce they ship to the UK. It's argued the States needs to offer

more support if the business is to survive. We will continue to

struggle. We have been treading water for the last two years.

Unless things turned round dramatically, I cannot see us

carrying on doing what we do in the future. And doing it in a market

where it's claimed European farmers are getting higher subsidies, makes

it all the more difficult for small scale Jersey farms to compete. But

the Environment Minister says giving them more cash to level the

playing field isn't the answer. you have some inspiration and good

ideas and a good business brain, you will succeed in business. But

is the way we should be promoting helping farms, not just allowing

them to take taxpayers' money in order to operate businesses that

are not cost-effective. But with rising land rent adding to the

concerns for Steve, his worry is he may have to say au revoir to his

business. Major concern within Guernsey

States prompted a report to change the rules on who can be the

Island's next Chief Minister. That's according to one of the

politicians behind plans to remove the restriction on how long

candidates have to have been in the States. It would mean new-comers

could stand. An emergency report was drawn up yesterday and a short

time ago I asked one of the deputies involved how it all came

about. The committee took it to the States

last year because we felt it was unjustified. Pitch should be the

best person for the job. But the States last year decided to reject

the report and keep it in situ. We were accused after that debate by

the public or we were keeping jobs for the boys. That was unfortunate,

but that is how the public saw it because of this restriction. Making

sure newcomers could not have the job. Since last Friday, there were

numerous e-mails saying is there any way we can get rid of this rule

to make sure the best person can be elected for the job of chief

minister. Will there be the support from States members to change it?

That is why we have gone for an emergency billeted with the bailiff.

So many have said to us they want to have a debate or rescind the law

that is in place. How many potentially new candidates could be

see as a result of this? Now the goal posts it will be moved, if it

is approved, who knows? I suspect it will be three or four macro. I

don't see a flurry of candidates coming forward. It may even just be

the same three, but at least it will have gone away forever, the

ridiculous rule where you have to have this discriminatory four years

out of five years restrictions. Thanks very much indeed for joining

Jersey's Population control mechanism isn't working and isn't

being enforced, that's the view of a group of politicians. The

Corporate Services Scrutiny panel has been reviewing population and

migration in the island in answer to public concern following the

results of the census. It says population levels are crucial for

the island's way of life. We have serious concerns as we move forward

and discuss population levels and provision for health and housing.

We need to rely and be able to rely on appropriate and proper

information. We are looking out to the chief minister to address the

matters that have been raised with in our report and the census

figures. 16 jobs are to go at the aircraft

maintenance company Anglo Normandy. It'll continue to maintain

Aurigny's Trislander fleet and its ATR aircraft, but the comprehensive

annual checks on the ATRs will be carried out by an as yet unnamed

company. Anglo Normandy is part of the States-owned airline Aurigny.

The company blames competition from Eastern Europe and says without

shedding jobs it'll make a �500,000 loss this year. Are charge out

rates for third-party customers in Europe are of the Order of �32. The

national airline of Rumania bomb- making a similar offer at 26 euros

an hour. It is difficult for us to compete with that. The cost base

and liberates the we have got, we can no longer compete. It has come

into our life in the last 18 months, two years. It's

You're watching the BBC in the Channel Islands. Later in Spotlight

with Justin and Victoria: Totally devoted - we meet the man who's

dedicated almost 50 years to his All this week we're looking at

secondary education in Jersey, and today we're asking if the way a

school's success is measured should change. Schools have traditionally

been judged on their GCSE results - but the highly selective nature of

our system makes it difficult to compare them on that basis alone.

Clare Burton reports. Does this look like one of the

worst schools in Britain? Does it sound like a failing school? It is

about determination, it is about to effort and perseverance. That's how

Grainville was described last year when its GCSE results came out.

Good evening. Coming up: Failing parents and children call for a

radical shake-up of the way schools' performance are measured.

Pass rates have dropped to 13%, placing them in the bottom five

schools in England and Wales. reaction, across all island media,

headteacher, John McGuinness says was damaging. For a large

percentage of students, they felt they were not worthy of recognition

and it does not reflect the students who do the vocational

courses and work-related learning. And they were demoralised by that

of one benchmark and headlines. forget that one benchmark - let's

look at some other numbers. Last year over 98% of students passed at

least five GCSEs. And 92% of them moved into further education - A-

levels at Hautlieu or vocation training at Highlands. However, 25%

of students have special educational needs like autism. And

for 10%, English isn't even their first language - like year 11

prefect Juliana. I did not speak any English, it was very hard. My

teacher helped me a lot and I had good support. But the statistic

John McGuinness wants you to focus on is this. 67% of his students met

or surpassed their target grades last year. So he says the school

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 288 seconds

Out at sea, some strong winds. The showers moderate visibility with

showers. Times of high water for The the surface, a big swell with

low pressure. For the rest of the week, after wetter weather tomorrow,

it is still looking breezy and unsettled on Thursday. Showers to

come with sunny spells. The risk of a shower on Friday, but it looks

dry now. Uncertainty over the dry now. Uncertainty over the

weekend that it looks like we could see more rain.