To County Hall yesterday to listen in to the Cabinet debate.
Two items of particular interest on the agenda – WEFO’s decision to suspend payment of grants on the Pembroke and Pembroke Dock commercial property improvement scheme and the proposed merger of Hakin and Hubberston schools.
The first was held in private session, so I am severely restricted in what I can say about it.
However, after the meeting, I was confronted in the members’ tea room by a clearly angry Cllr Jamie Adams who said “A success for you Mike. You’ve put the kibosh on the grants scheme”.
“Hang on a minute, Jamie” I said, but, before I could answer this charge, he was out of the door and on his way upstairs to his private office.
Now, as it was never my intention to put the kibosh on the grants scheme, it is difficult to see how this latest development can be described as a success, but logic was never the leader’s strong suit.
Of course, what I have succeeded in doing is demonstrating that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that there is something amiss with the way this scheme has been administered.
So much so that the police have now been called in to investigate.
It is difficult to believe that it almost 12 months since I first wrote about this subject (25 April 2013) and since then I have had to suffer a barrage of personal attacks from Adams and his sidekick Cllr David Pugh as I sought to winkle out the truth.
It seems that, like the Bourbons, the leadership of the IPPG has “forgotten nothing and learned nothing” because the people who have put the kibosh on the grants scheme are those who failed to follow the rules.
And, as they are in charge (allegedly) Cllrs Adams and Pugh must take their share of the responsibility.
Trying to shuffle off the blame for their own shortcomings on to me will simply not do.
But it is typical of the way these people conduct “debate”.
Instead of using facts and logic to show their opponents are wrong, they make unsubstantiated assertions and then slant the argument in such a way as to demonstrate that those who disagree with them are in the wrong.
As expected the Cabinet nodded through the proposal to amalgamate Hakin and Hubberston Schools under one roof.
The school is projected to accommodate some 500 children.
Whether this is the right decision, I can’t be certain.
But what I am sure about is that, in a democracy, both the decision and the way it is reached have to be considered.
Cabinet member for education Ken Rowlands said the paramount reason he was backing the merger was that it would benefit the children’s education.
This assertion was echoed by Cllrs Sue Perkins, Jamie Adams and Huw George.
All spoke of how a larger school would offer not only better education, but wider opportunities in such areas as sport, music and other extra-curricular activities.
None of them offered any evidence for this proposition, though, if it is true, anyone foolish or wicked enough to oppose the merger must, by definition, favour worse outcomes for the children.
It is interesting that, before the matter came before the Cabinet in February, I actually went to the trouble of reading some of the research papers on the Web dealing with the relationship between school size and educational outcomes and in my response to the consultation document, in which I neither came out for or against the merger, I suggested that it would be helpful to Cabinet members if they had a digest of this research before reaching a decision.
After all, they are forever prattling on about the importance of evidence-based policy.
In the event, no such information was provided and none was requested, though the officer’s report was replete with claims that the children would benefit from being taught in a larger school.
The following is a meta study of the research into this issue. It is an American paper so elementary means primary.
The abstract reads:
“This review examined 57 post-1990 empirical studies of school size effects on a variety of student and organizational outcomes. The weight of evidence provided by this research clearly favors smaller schools. Students who traditionally struggle at school and students from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds (my emphasis) are the major benefactors of smaller schools. Elementary schools with large proportions of such students should be limited in size to not more than about 300 students; those serving economically and socially heterogeneous or relatively advantaged students should be limited in size to about 500 students.
Now I am perfectly prepared to accept that this is sociological research and the results should not be taken as gospel, but I think there enough evidence to challenge the glib certainties spouted by members of the Cabinet.
And, if they are convinced by the argument that children benefit from larger schools, you have to ask why aren’t mergers of primary schools in places like Haverfordwest being pushed through.
A recent example of a school merger is that between Llangwm and Burton to form Cleddau Reach primary school. The original intention was to include Hook in this merger – after all Hook is much nearer to the new school than Burton – but the parents objected and the school was left to go its own way.
Following the logic of Cllrs Rowlands, Perkins, Adams and George, by giving into parental pressure, the county council has condemned the children of Hook to an inferior education.
Which brings me to another leg of their argument: that a new school for Hakin alone would act as a magnet, drawing pupils away from Hubberston which would wither on the vine.
Admittedly my evidence is merely anecdotal, but I am told by someone who should know about these things that, following the opening of Cleddau Reach, the numbers attending Hook school have gone up.
We also had Cllr Rob Lewis telling us how people always resist change i.e. those opposed to this merger were a bunch of reactionaries.
When it was proposed that two schools in his area should be merged there was strong local opposition, he said, but, now the new school was up and running, parents thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
Of course, making comparisons with small schools with falling rolls in rural Martletwy and largish schools with rising pupil numbers in Hakin/Hubberston is hardly the height of intellectual rigour.
And I’m perfectly well aware of what one of my favourite liberal thinkers Milton Friedman refers to as “The tyranny of the status quo” but that doesn’t mean the status quo is always wrong.
It is as well not to proceed on the basis that change is always progress.
Then there was the killer blow expounded by Cllr Rowlands.
If the Cabinet failed to back the merger there might be no new school for anyone.
Leaving aside the fact that the county council made a firm promise last June that Hakin would have a new school, regardless of whether Hubberston joined the party, this lacks coherence because, if educational outcomes are paramount, and the bigger school will provide the children with a better education then the case is made without having to resort to threats.
Hopefully, the proposal to transfer these school reorganisation/closure issues from Cabinet to full council will gain enough support when it comes up for decision at the extraordinary meeting on May 1.
I can’t guarantee the decisions, dominated as they will be by the IPPG block vote, will be any better, but I am pretty sure we can expect a rather more intellectually rigorous standard of debate.
And it will be on the webcam for all to see.