At an Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing yesterday, panel chairwoman Deputy Louise Doublet asked what information was available to teachers who believed they were being bullied.
Her comments come after it was reported earlier this year that the Education Department was to work closely with unions, governors and the principal of Highlands following claims in the States that staff at the college were being bullied and harassed.
Education Minister Rod Bryans told the panel that a protocol regarding bullying was available and that all staff were aware of how to access it.
Deputy Doublet said that she wanted to see more done to make teachers aware of where they could access support and asked what evidence a teacher would need if they wanted to report a case of bullying.
She said: ‘I think it is reasonable that the protocol information is passed to teachers in an email so they know what that is and it would reinforce the message.’
Both Deputy Bryans and Education director Justin Donovan were at first reluctant to send an email because they said they did not want to highlight the issue of bullying when they did not believe it to be an issue in the Island. However, they later said that the information would be included in the next regular email sent out to teachers.
Mr Donovan said: ‘We have controlled policies people can refer to. They can also go to their union reps, who will offer plenty of advice about where teachers can go.
‘Sometimes people say they are being bullied when they are struggling in a role and might be finding things difficult. There is a fine line between robust management and bullying. If we think bullying is going on then we will deal with it very quickly.’
Deputy Bryans added: ‘We don’t want to send a signal out to make people think there is a bullying epidemic, because it is not the case. When we have information to send out in the next few weeks to teachers then we will include the bullying protocol.’
The Scrutiny panel also heard that Education are working on a number of initiatives to get more young people aware of next year’s election.
Deputy Bryans said: ‘We are looking at holding hustings for the students similar to a speed-dating event. We are also working with local theatre production company Love Theatre, who are going to produce a play around politics which has been commissioned by the department. We are also going to have young people involved with the parish counts during the election.
‘In the last election, registration forms were in schools, and this year we would like them to be in schools a lot earlier.’
The minister also told the panel that the Youth Service was working on its own youth parliament scheme, similar to one that is currently spearheaded by Jersey College for Girls students.
Deputies Jeremy Maçon, Sam Mézec and Tracey Vallois were also sitting on the panel.
