ASCL responds to IFS report on cost of lost schooling

Commenting on the report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the cost of lost schooling, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“The government in England is a long way short of the £30 billion benchmark for catch-up support suggested in this report by the IFS.

“It has invested £1 billion this year on a scheme that it has over-complicated through its insistence on channelling some of that money into a subsidised tutoring programme. And it has so far mentioned only £300 million for the next financial year with little detail over its plans.

“The government will need to put in place much more substantial catch-up funding to repair the damage to education caused by the pandemic, and all of this funding needs to go directly to schools and colleges.”