27/04/2012 BBC Channel Islands News

Good evening. The top stories this Friday evening, calling for called.

After having his hopes dashed, Lee Merrien is finally selected for the

Olympics. 20 years after thousands of tons of potatoes were dumped on

this Jersey beach, if taxpayers are still paying the price.

Educating for the future. At the end of our series looking at the

Jersey education system, we bring you a special programme with

highlights of last night's live Nadia debate. -- radio debate.

skew the intakes of schools and some benefit at the expense of the

Guernsey Atlee Lee Merrien has made the Olympic marathon team. It

follows an appeal after he failed to automatically qualifies.

Today it was not quite the result he walked off. This was the moment

when Lee Merrien missed out on automatic Olympic -- Olympic

qualification. He crossed the line as the fastest British runner and

ran a personal best. It was 90 seconds outside the Team GB

required qualification time. Shortly after the race, he tweeted

his disappointment, saying he was gutted and had not reached the

Olympic time. Following the marathon as support paid was

launched which has about 3,000 likes. He was calling for the

Olympic Selection Committee to reconsider and today they dead.

appealed and they decided my performance was good enough to

warrant selection. I will just go out there and do my best.

Merrien is currently on holiday with his family but says after the

break he will resume training so he will give his best performance in

London this summer. Apologies about the technical problems. Next

tonight, there could be job losses at a mail-order firm in Guernsey

following the decision to scrap LVCR. Talks were held at the

greeting company Moonpig, the BBC understands well the majority of

the business will stay in Guernsey part of it will move elsewhere. It

will affect a small number of jobs. Moonpig said it had had to make

some tough decisions and it has moved it to ensure the business

continues. The company believes it has a bright future ahead.

Pollution is still being pumped away from Beauport 10 years after

thousands of potatoes were dumped there. It may be another 10 years

before the pumping can stop. Potatoes were dumped in 1992

because of a glut in the market. This is Beauport Beach today.

Lovely sand and blue seas. One of the island's real beauty spots. 20

years ago the sand was turned black as a foul-smelling liquid crept

down from their head land. Reg Langois was the campaigner who

alerted the States to the folly of allowing 10,000 tons of Jersey

Royals to be buried. Two miles away I could smell it and it was

horrible. Tankers had to collect the waist and transported to the

sewage works to stop it from smelling. Engineers built upon

PlayStation -- a pumping station at the cost of lots of money. They

believe it will be needed for the next 10 years. There was a serious

incident 20 years ago and we have been treating it ever since.

Although there has been degradation, it has gone to about 10% strength.

We cannot put to back. Beauport fears there may be another problem

caused by the dumping which has not been recognised. -- Reg Langois

fears. Instead of being a lovely, a flat field, it is a crater. The

potatoes are causing subsidence. They are obviously rotten. It is

very dangerous for anyone passing over the top. The campaigner

believes the land above his beauties but should be cordoned off

until it is safe. -- this beauty spot.

Audio recordings of Guernsey French are now available from islanders on

line. Guernesiais is currently being archive alongside other

endangered Languages at a facility in London. This local teacher

collected the material and says it is a vital resource. What we find

is when we ask people they are quite pleased to be recorded, and

they feel it is something they are doing for the island are for future

generations. There is also the element that people have an

opportunity to get together and be recorded. We heard yesterday from

the only official candidate to be Guernsey's next chief minister

following the news his competition Lyndon Trott was pulling out. There

is another potential candidate, pinning his hopes on a rule change

that would allow him to stand. Deputy elect Peter Hartwood, you

call yourself a candidate in waiting, because unless the rules

changed you cannot stand officially. If that happens, why are you the

right man for the job? I can bring a wealth of experience, not

necessarily from inside but right side. I have been a practising

advocate for 30 years, worked in the Thatcher services sector, and

also been in and around politics. - - Financial Services. There will be

those who are worried you do not have experience as a politician,

what would you say? I would say epic there is an advantage in not

having it because I have not got any political baggage. By been a

newcomer writer not have that baggage. What do you think of the

raw moving forward. My approach will be trying to maintain cohesion.

I will maintain harmony. I can then drive harmony through it. I will be

focusing internally on the island, and they appreciate a will have to

go off the island for various things but I will delegate that.

you don't get the job, where would you like to end up? I'd quite like

to be involved with social security. That is an important portfolio and

important decisions have to be taken. The accused. -- thank you.

We will have full coverage next week. Thanks for being with us.

Later in the programme, the weather, and we bring you highlights from

the live debate on the future of Jersey's education system. When you

have selection by fees are by faith or by ability you skewed the intake.

I think that is unfair. Make sure you stay tuned. An

estimated 7,000 people watched Jersey's top amateur footballers

and rugby starts this weekend. After all eyes is likely on the

Isle of Man for their game tomorrow. It is the biggest match of their

history. By a record crowd is expected at St Peter. The rugby

team will be presented with their trophy. We will bring all of those

trophy. We will bring all of those highlights next week. The where

there now. We have an unsettled weekend ahead. The rain will arrive

quite quickly. It will be replaced by showers on Sunday. To sum up,

heavy rain is possible, it will become windy, showers will come on

Sunday. We have area of low pressure right down here in the

southern parts of the Bay of Biscay and over Spain and Portugal. It

develops through the day and will be quite a long way away from us.

Low-pressure moves across the south-west. Not only will it be

windy we will also see heavy rain. Tonight we will see some isolated

showers, and some dry weather. Temperatures will be down to seven

or eight degrees. The win will pick up through the day tomorrow and

after finds that the cloud and the rain will roll-up and after lunch

it will be quite wet. If you are following the football, it should

be a fine day tomorrow one Douglas. You could follow all the details on

your radio station. Closer to home, the wind will pick up and we will

see ahead breaks of rain by tomorrow. Times of high water at St

Helier, 11:06am. Most beaches will be clean. By Sunday we have windy

conditions and heavy showers. It conditions and heavy showers. It

will be water. Here is the summary. Wrap up warm. This week we had been

reporting on the education system and we have seen how the system

produces very different results depending on which school you go to.

The Education Minister has confirmed his intention to continue

subsidising the fee-paying schools. To gauge reaction about what you

think, the BBC held a public debate last night. I will leave you with

those highlights and a few moments. I am back with an update just

before 8pm. Thank you. Good evening. We are putting secondary education

in our island under the Spotlight. Joining the for the debate we have

the former Det that should a former head, journalists, the Education

Minister, and the former head of Good evening and welcome. Welcome

to this debate on the future of secondary education. The first

question is from the audience. does the panel consider that the

significance state subsidy of private education impact on the

education provided to other children? I will come to the

education minister. My job is to make sure it doesn't. In a nutshell,

I would like to emphasise that. That is not to say that I do not

value what the fee-paying sector does. I want to support and

improved the non fee-paying sector, but without destabilising the fee-

paying sector. I am trying to keep the best of all worlds. It is

tricky. Richard, you have Totton one of these schools that the other

children go to. What is the impact that this system is having? It is

not about money. Everybody has fallen into that trap. There is a

lot of money in the system and if there was more money in the system

there would still be issues. If you ask yourself it is a fair system,

is it? Who looks after those who are the most honourable and who

looks after those that have the mental health issues? Who looks

after those who cannot afford it? It is not about money, it is about

who looks after the most vulnerable, and who cannot get into those

schools. Fiona Millar, what you think the impact will be on those

most vulnerable children? I am not from Jersey so I can only talk to

you about what I know about the English system. Wherever you have

selection by fees or by faith caught by ability, you skew the

intake. That is fundamentally Does the panel believes that there

are many aspects of students' education that are important, not

only exam results? And that the creation of league tables leads to

the achievements of last students? It is an absolute nonsense to have

bleak tables. They should never have been intention to publish

league tables. In terms of league tables, what are you measuring?

What are you saying to those students who get bad results? It is

nonsense to publish league tables based on very narrow measures.

There just one part of a child's education. How can we then measure

what the different Jersey schools are producing? To compare our

schools with what is generally available, to make that of any use

at all to parents, we would have to include so much contextual

information that it would make them frankly unreadable for parents.

does the public know which school is performing well? We are

committed to publishing everything that there is to publish. Let's go

to another question now. I am clearly a Jersey resident and I am

her retired teacher. Every society needs an educated elite, but does

every 11-year-old in Jersey now have the chance one day to become

of one of the brain surgeons, business leaders, government

ministers of the future? Or is it increasingly and heavily now in

favour of theirs who can have it -- in favour of those who can afford

school fees? I'm not sure if I would put government minister in

the same category as brain surgeon! I think the proof is in the fact

that I have met many people from different walks of life who have

become incredibly successful coming from all sorts of backgrounds in

Jersey. It does unfortunately still help to have the privilege of money

behind you, but I think we do have a system here where people can

achieve. One of the problems we have, we perhaps put too much

emphasis on the education system to educate children can and should --

and we should actually make sure the parents take their part as well.

Unfortunately, the parents who do not take responsibility but not

generally send their children were fee-paying school. You have done

parental background, the things that are likely to influence Howard

child behaves in school. Some children get to her and others

don't. On the whole, the better if you are, the more likely you are to

get through. Access to doing A- level courses, only some schools do

them, you and you do need to get A- levels if you want to go on to be

further educated. I would take issue with the fact that you must

have an education level. In England, when we did have that educated

elite, we didn't do terribly well. It doesn't seem to me to be very

fair at all. Richard, you dealt with children coming to school at

the age of 11. How can you at aspire to them? It is very

important that you don't write people off at the age of 11 or 15,

it is about giving everybody a chance. Even if they mess up aged

25 or 26 or whatever, there is always an opportunity as long as

they have had that confidence built into them and that resilience built

into them. The answer is, you inspire them. Jamie Swanson asks,

does the panel agreed that it is cheaper to be paid -- to pay part

of the police had to pay 100 % of the cost? Did you want to keep the

fee subsidy as it is so it made it cheaper for the pub -- the public

purse? No, it is the absurdity of the proposition to cut the subsidy

to save money. Or we would have needed was one of the schools to

close -- all we would have needed. Then all the taxpayer would have --

then the taxpayer would have had to pick up all cost. It would have

been bonkers. So parents paying schools are subsidising. Do you

think that is a good model for provision? A no, I would say that

investing a bit of money in a fully comprehensive system in Jersey

would be a wonderful investment for the future of all the children.

Comprehensive systems are the oness that worked best for all children,

not just the elite. It is a fact. should turn to the minister now. We

have had e-mails asking this week if you're committed to keeping the

fee subsidy as it is all we you try as your predecessor did to reduce

the amount the States pay? Grant reductions lead to fee increases of

one kind or another. That would impact of very large number of

middle-income, ordinary Jersey families. The fact of the matter is

that if we were to go from what we have now to a fully comprehensive

UK star system, for example, it would cost us �11.2 million per

year. That is what the tax payers would have to pay. Let's turn back

to the audience now. Jersey, like many other places in western Europe,

is facing concerns over youth unemployment. To the panel consider

that specific programmes should be delivered in schools to support

students to meet the needs of local businesses and the local community?

The answer is yes, very clearly. But getting resources to do that is

extremely difficult. In the end, at a school, we work with local

businesses and set up Arran courses on a shoestring. Do you think the

schools are serving your needs and other employers well enough? As an

employer, I am disappointed sometimes that people go off to

university and get a degree that is of little use on the island and

then come back and be very disappointed when they have trouble

getting a job. I think what will happen is employers will start

looking for much more relevant degrees. Do we have many employers

in the audience who have an opinion on this? The chap in the white

shirt? For me, it is about the people, what they can do,

adaptability, creativity, that is what I look for. None of that is

coming through the schools. The one of the problems with IT, I agree

entirely, IT is delivered because it is part of the national

curriculum and because there is a qualification at the end of it. It

is not a great qualification, it doesn't teach the schools -- the

skills that you want to be taught in schools. It wants to be a

different qualification to. wasn't having a pop at the teachers

all the schools. I was saying that the system does not deliver. For me,

it is about that adaptability. A look for something within a person,

not what they had been educated in during a maths or chemistry lesson.

I believe the system currently does not deal with that. Anybody else

have a question? As far as an employer is concerned, I have an

attitude -- I hire an attitude. I had to employ somebody the other

day and it took me two minutes to hire the one individual that I

thought was good for the job, because they smiled at me, they had

something about them. I got that message within two minutes. May I

ask which school the candidate went to? It was hoped ballet. -- Valet.

I am of the fortunate position to be it a head teacher. One of the

issues was creating a league tables is that you always get winners and

losers -- with creating. From what you know of our education system,

Fiona, this man has bought up the issue of winners and losers. Do

think that is a danger in the selective system such as ours?

Gaudy thing we have got it right? There are always too many winners

and losers in a selective system. It is based are rejecting the

minority and those children know they have been rejected. It is

something they often carry with them through life. There are so

much scientific evidence about children's brains developing in

their teenage years. Somebody who might fail a test at 11 could have

potential which that test would not show at all. But as a worry. --