In a letter published in today’s Jersey Evening Post, Mario Lundy has hit back at criticism of Grainville, Hautlieu, Le Rocquier and Les Quennevias, after exam results showed them lagging behind Jersey’s fee-paying schools and UK schools.
Mr Lundy said that the JEP’s reporting of the story ‘contained inaccuracies and failed to acknowledge the considerable achievements of the pupils in our 11-16 non fee-paying schools’.
‘It is not possible to make a direct comparison between these schools and similar schools in the UK; such schools simply do not exist in England,’ he said.
Jersey’s ‘highly selective nature of secondary education’, with 41 % of pupils attending fee-paying schools in Jersey – compared to 7% in the UK, meant that comparing the two jurisdictions was ‘fundamentally flawed’, Mr Lundy argued.
He added that the four States schools were champions of social inclusion and provided support for pupils with special needs and for those speaking English as a foreign language.
‘The fact is that pupils in Jersey do generally perform as well as their counterparts in the UK and in some respects better,’ he said.
‘Nevertheless, we can improve and will continue to aim higher.’
