The Minister says that “you’ll rarely hear me use the word consultation anymore” opting to focus on the co-design process that has been used for Signature School programming and will be used for Parish Primary Schools.

This ignores the issues raised on the consultation process used. I in no way shape or form took issue with the intention to use a co-design process going forward for Parish Primary Schools. My issues are with the consultation process used between December 2020 and March 2021 to identify schools for closure and if this consultation was sincere and cultivated the necessary buy-in, which by all impressions, it hasn’t.

The Minister also asserts that the Parish Primary vision was co-designed with the input of hundreds of people. The only point the public became aware of the Parish Primary vision was December 2020 when the Parish Primary Proposal document was released. No details on a co-design process for the Parish Primary vision are published.

I was on a design team at one point, but this was for Signature School programming, not Parish Primary Schools. They are two distinct areas of reform and again, the co-design process for Parish Primary Schools has not begun.
He goes on to say, “although our focus most recently has been the application of these new features in the Senior School context […] we look forward to expanding this to also co-developing these features in the Primary School context.”

This further supports my point that the “features and models” of Parish Primary schools have not been identified in practical terms, contrary to the statement that “Francis Patton Primary and Purvis Primary will embrace the models and features of Parish Primary Schools, as determined through an extensive consultation process which concluded in July 2021”. Again, consultation ended 12th March 2021, and no models or features have been fully identified. Everything at this point is a conceptual vision.

The Minister ends by inviting the community, and myself, to join the Parish Primary School Transformation Team. However, I reiterate the point in my column that “schools have already been identified for closure through what many feel was an insincere process. As a result, who will be inspired to actively participate in a change they do not support?”

The Minister doesn’t address that closing schools is not included in the Government’s 2020 election platform. He doesn’t address if he feels the consultation process achieved the goal of shared-ownership and support that true consultation strives for, and chose to instead focus on the co-design process to come by conflating it with the Signature School co-design process, which are two separate things.

I fully acknowledge the error made with Harrington Sound Primary. The column was updated early yesterday, and a note was added acknowledging the mistake and offering apologies.

As someone who has been threatened at a PLP Town Hall meeting for asking questions, I do not believe one word of the Minister’s propaganda speech.