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A survey of primary school headteachers has revealed unanimous opposition to a proposal to set up three bilingual English-French schools on the island - with the idea described as "ridiculous", "elitist" and "whimsical".
The survey, conducted by the Education Department, gathered responses from 21 out of 24 of Jersey's primary school headteachers — with none supporting the idea put forward by Deputy Philip Bailhache.
Pictured: Zero survey respondents were in favour of the idea.
The proposition – due to be debated on 1 October – called for three primary schools to gradually introduce bilingual teaching from 2025 and aims to preserve French as a key part of Jersey's cultural heritage.
As well as educators, the proposition has also failed to gain the backing of the Education Minister – who has cited "significant" staffing and resource requirements among the potential drawbacks.
Deputy Rob Ward said the proposal to convert three primary schools to teach the curriculum in French as well as English could cost more than £2 million to implement and was not the best way of providing high-quality French teaching.
Pictured: Deputy Philip Bailhache is proposing that three primary schools gradually introduce English-French bilingual teaching from 2025.
He added that the plan was "neither inclusive nor accessible to all children and young people on island."
Similar concerns about staffing and recruitment were expressed by headteachers in the survey.
Several said it would be difficult to find enough qualified teachers who were both fluent in French and capable of delivering the local curriculum.
One headteacher commented: "We cannot recruit and retain high-quality teachers. It's not enough to be French speakers – they would need to be quality practitioners too. The chances of staffing such an initiative are very slim based on recent and current recruitment data."
Pictured: Deputy Ward said he could not support the proposition.
Several headteachers emphasised the need to address existing challenges in schools before considering new initiatives like bilingual education with one describing the the idea as "ridiculous" and "whimsical" and another calling it an "elitist, niche hobbyhorse."
One said: "Get the current portfolio of school buildings up to scratch... and ensure the current schools are staffed sufficiently before coming up with a whimsical idea of a bilingual school."
"We have more important priorities," said another.
"It's an elitist, niche hobbyhorse and threatens the equity of our offer to all children," one respondent said.
"There are many greater, more pressing needs to be addressed in schools," added another.
"I think there are much more important issues in education to consider."
Pictured: The majority of respondents said that they do not have the staff to implement the proposal.
Other headteachers raised concerns about the potential impact of the proposal on children learning English as an additional language and questioned prioritising French over other languages like Portuguese or Polish.
One respondent said: "Jersey is a multi-lingual island. The second and third languages of the island are not French, but Portuguese and Polish. If we were to offer bilingual provision, it ought to be in these languages, not French."
"We have a significant proportion of children who start school with little or no English. In our context, we need to maximise the amount of time the children are using English and have a particularly strong focus on oracular to help them build their English vocabulary," another added.
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