, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to
the National Audit Office report ‘Support for children’s
education during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic’,
said:
“The Government’s slow response to the pandemic means they have
failed to protect children from the damaging social and
educational impacts at every stage.
“Ministers left thousands of children without the ability to
learn, with months of school being missed before the first
laptops were distributed to children, and failed to engage to
support vulnerable children to attend school acknowledging this
put them at increased risk of harm.
“Supporting children should now be at the heart of our national
recovery, but the Government’s catch-up tutoring programme was
supporting just five in every 1,000 children in February, leaving
hundreds of thousands of children without the catch-up support
they need.
“The Government has failed children throughout this pandemic. A
step change is needed to ensure they are not also left behind in
our recovery.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The Department for Education: “did not develop an overarching
departmental plan until June. … Without an established plan, the
Department’s response to the pandemic was largely reactive.”
-
The Department received an initial 50,200 laptops and
tablets by 11 May. It distributed most of the equipment to
local authorities and academy trusts during June, meaning that
many children may not have been able to access remote learning
until well into the second half of the summer term.
-
- By the beginning of June, on average pupils had already
lost 39 days of school.
- By the end of the school year (w/c 13 July) the Govt had
distributed 212,900 laptops and tablets, compared to up to
1.78 million children Ofcom estimate had no laptop, tablet,
desktop at home.
This left 1.567 million children without the means to access
teaching remotely, missing up to 75 days education between March
and July last year.
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2021-week-11
- On the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), the report says:
“At February 2021, 125,200 children had been allocated a
tutoring place across 3,984 schools. Of the 125,200 children
allocated a tutoring place, 41,100 had started to receive
tuition, of whom 44% were eligible for pupil premium. This raises
questions over the extent to which the scheme will reach the most
disadvantaged children.”
- This is equivalent to 5 children in a secondary school of
1,000 pupils receiving tuition support.
-
“Demand for the academic mentors scheme [as part of
the NTP] has outstripped supply...Academic mentors were
placed in schools in three tranches in October 2020, and
January and February 2021. In total around 1,100 mentors were
placed across 1,100 schools, meaning more than 600 schools that
requested a mentor have not received one.”
-
- This mean only 5% (1100/21,600) of state schools have an
NTP academic mentor in place
-
The proportion of vulnerable children who attended school
or college remained below 11% from 23 March to late May.
Attendance increased gradually after schools partially
re-opened in June and reached a weekly average of 26% by the
end of the summer term. The Department and Ofsted were
concerned that low school attendance could result in increased
levels of hidden harm.
