Professor Stephen Heppell's reply to the JEP letter to the editor

Posted: 27/10/2014

Digital Jersey board member, Professor Stephen Heppell responds to the letter in the JEP published on Friday 17 October. Stephen Heppell's reply ...

Digital Jersey board member, Professor Stephen Heppell responds to the letter in the JEP published on Friday 17 October.

Stephen Heppell's reply

The Editor,

I was encouraged to read Joseph Carney's letter of Friday 17 October endorsing my commissioned Financial Times opinion piece from 17/713, exploring important directions in the educational policy of countries like Singapore or Hong Kong who view education as an investment rather than a cost, and who have sought and adopted my advice in the past.

Mr Carney asks where Digital Jersey has been in the recent round of exchanges about Jersey's own education policy futures:  I hosted a very large public meeting about precisely that issue back in May 2013 and repeated at that event many of the quotations and details that Joseph picked up in my FT piece. That event certainly attracted widespread debate and agreement – from parents to policymakers – across Jersey, and I like to think it helped jumpstart the current debate. Meanwhile at DJ the new Hub is filled by young learners buzzing with a new curriculum of coding and creativity, whilst in March 2014 our big public showcase "Be Very Afraid" event brought Jersey school students together to evidence and celebrate the cool and ingenious things they are doing with technology, at all ages.

Of course, I'd love things to be moving more even more rapidly – for once, we do know precisely the correct direction – but progress is afoot and I'm proud of Digital Jersey's catalytic role in that progress.

Professor Stephen Heppell

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