Nov 12 - Government Says GSD's Flagship Education Project Is In Tatters After GTA Statement

The Caretaker Government takes note of the public statement of the teachers’ association GTA/NASUWT that it has neither been consulted nor is in agreement with the principle of a mega school that the GSD has proposed as part of their education policy.

A spokesman for No6 said: "This leaves the GSD’s flagship project of combining all secondary education in a single school at the Rooke site in tatters and complete disarray.

"The GSD’s spokesman on Education, Elliott Phillips, said in a TV programme this week that they have talked to teachers “in every single school and all of them universally agree that this is a good proposition”. That statement must now be judged against the GTA’s statement that the teachers’ representatives have not been consulted and do not agree with the mega school.

"It is nothing short of scandalous that the GSD propose the biggest restructure of secondary education in Gibraltar for over forty years and yet they have not consulted the teachers’ representatives.

"The GSD’s chairman, Trevor Hammond, has been quoted as saying that the organisational structure for the single school is being developed with input from stakeholders. It is quite extraordinary that the GSD do not regard the GTA as relevant stakeholders even though their members will be substantially affected by the GSD’s proposal with a very real possibility of posts being lost.

"The GSD’s proposal is educationally unsound and does not enjoy the support of teachers. It would also create a logistical nightmare in getting over 2,000 children into and out of the same location at the same time.

"This is not a mega school that the GSD are planning – it is a mega disaster." 

{fcomment}