Ahead of Wednesday’s parliamentary debate on education recovery,
the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published a research
note on current government funding committed to education
recovery, the extent of pupil learning loss, and a summary of
interventions needed to undo the damage to children’s education
following the pandemic.
EPI analysis shows that government funding for education
recovery for pupils over the whole of the next academic year
amounts to only slightly more than the funding that has gone
towards the Chancellor’s “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, which ran
for one month.
Under the government’s current programme to support pupils’
recovery in England, an entire year of funding for the 2021/22
academic year, the key year for education recovery, will amount
to around £984m – in contrast to the government’s flagship scheme
to support restaurants, cafés and pubs in August 2020, which cost
£840m.
Last week, the government unveiled a £1.4bn package to support
education recovery in England over a three-year period.
EPI analysis has shown that last week’s package amounts to around
£50 per pupil per year.
New research from EPI for the Department for Education (DfE)
published on Friday 4 June underlines the importance of
supporting education recovery. The data analysis found that by
the 2021 spring term, pupils had on average lost over 2 months in
reading and over 3 months in maths as a result of the pandemic.
In May, EPI published a full set of proposals for education
recovery, finding that in total, a package of £13.5bn over
three-years would be required to reverse learning loss and
support pupil wellbeing.
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How funding for education recovery is allocated on a per
pupil basis
- On 2 June, the government unveiled a new education package to
address pandemic learning loss for pupils in England, totalling
£1.4bn. The package spans a three-year period, and includes £1bn
to support pupils through tutoring, in addition to extra funding
to support teacher training.
- EPI analysis finds that the new education recovery package of
£1.4bn for pupils in England amounts to around £50 extra per
pupil per year.
- Per pupil, this level of funding is around one tenth of the
funding required to reverse pupil learning losses (£500 per pupil
per year – see EPI proposals below)
- After factoring in education recovery funding prior to last
week’s announcement (£1.7bn for recovery plus the recent £1.4bn),
the total level of funding committed for England over four years
is £310 per pupil.
How funding for education recovery compares with other
programmes during the pandemic
- If allocated evenly over the three-year period, the new
£1.4bn recovery package announced last week would amount to
around £467m a year.
- Prior to last week’s announcement, the government had already
allocated around £215m towards the National Tutoring Programme
(NTP) for the coming academic year (2021/22). £302m of the
previously announced “recovery premium” will also be available
for the same year
- This means that taken together, total funding to support
education recovery over the next academic year (2021/22) is
around £984m.
- The £984m committed by the government for the whole of the
2021/2022 academic year compares to the total cost of the “Eat
Out to Help Out” scheme, which ran for one month from 3 to 31
August 2020 at £840m in total paid subsidies to restaurants,
cafés and pubs.
How much learning have pupils lost as a result of the
pandemic? New EPI research for the DfE published last
Friday
New EPI research for the Department for Education, published
on Friday 4 June, finds that average learning losses for
primary school pupils stood at nearly 2 months in reading and
over 3 months in maths in the first half of the autumn term,
before recovering in the second half of the autumn term, and then
regressing to prior levels in the spring term:
- At a national level, by the first half of the autumn term
(October 2020), average learning losses were 3.7 months in maths
for pupils in primary school and 1.8 months in reading for pupils
in primary school.
- Then, by the second half of the autumn term (December 2020),
average learning losses had temporarily recovered to 2.7 months
in maths for pupils in primary school and 1.2 months in reading
for pupils in primary school.
- However, by the second half of the spring term (March 2021),
following the national lockdown and restrictions to in-person
teaching, pupil learning losses had then regressed to a similar
level at the start of the autumn term, standing at an average
loss of 3.5 months in maths for pupils in primary school and 2.2
months in reading for pupils in primary school.
Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have been amongst the
biggest losers as a result of the pandemic:
- At a national level, by the first half of the autumn term,
average learning losses for disadvantaged pupils were 4.3 months
in maths for pupils in primary school and 2 months in reading for
pupils in primary school.
- Then, by the second half of the autumn term, average learning
losses for disadvantaged pupils recovered to 3.3 months in maths
for pupils in primary school and 1.6 in reading for pupils in
primary school.
- EPI findings on losses for disadvantaged pupils in the spring
term following restrictions to in-person teaching will be
published by the DfE later this year.
- This analysis provides further evidence that restrictions to
in-person teaching following the pandemic have led to a widening
of the “disadvantage gap” – the gap in school attainment between
disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
- The relative learning loss for disadvantaged pupils was the
equivalent of losing between a third and two-thirds of the
progress made over the past decade in closing the disadvantage
gap in primary schools. Given further restrictions to in-person
teaching during 2020/21, it is likely that the gap could grow
further.
There is evidence of disparities in learning losses at a regional
level (though results should be treated with some caution due to
sample sizes):
- In particular, we find that by the first half of the autumn
term, average learning losses in reading for pupils in primary
school were 1.5 months in the South West and 1.3 months in
London; but 2.3 months in the North East and 2.6 months in
Yorkshire and the Humber.
- By the second half of the autumn term, average losses in
reading for pupils in primary school were 0.8 months in the South
West and 1.7 months in London; but 2.0 months in the North East
and 1.7 months in Yorkshire and the Humber.
- The full table of regional learning losses in reading can be
found here.
- Whilst sample sizes are smaller for assessments in maths, we
still find evidence of wide regional disparities in learning loss
by region.
- Learning losses in the second half of the autumn term were
again significantly below average in the South West and in
London, and significantly above average in the North East and in
Yorkshire and the Humber.
- The full table of regional learning losses in maths can be
found here.
- EPI findings on regional losses by the spring term following
restrictions to in-person teaching will be published by the DfE
later this year.
How much should be spent on education recovery and what
should it be spent on?
- In mid-May, EPI published analysis which showed that a
three-year funding package totalling £13.5bn will be required to
reverse the damage to pupils’ learning as a result of the
pandemic. The EPI study was the first to model the impact of lost
learning and set out a series of fully costed, evidence-based,
proposals for government.
- EPI’s proposed package of £13.5bn over three years (£13bn
just for schools and post-16 education), would allocate around
£500 per pupil per year – ten times the level of funding that the
government has committed to in its £1.4bn package (£50 per pupil
per year).
- EPI recovery proposals, which can be read in full here, include:
- Extended school hours for social and academic programmes;
- Summer wellbeing programmes;
- One-to-one and small group tuition;
- An increase and extension of the Pupil Premium;
- Greater incentives for teachers to work in “challenging
areas”;
- Extra funding for schools to hire a mental health support
worker;
- New guidance for schools to support better wellbeing and
inclusion;
- Softer accountability measures for schools in 2021-22;
- A new continuous professional development (CPD) fund for
teachers, and
- A right to repeat the year for a small minority of pupils, if
appropriate.
Commenting ahead of Wednesday’s debate on education
recovery, , Executive Chairman of the Education Policy Institute
(EPI), said:
"Learning losses over the last year in England have been very
significant, and require a recovery package of evidence-based
policies supported by adequate finance from the government.
"The £1.4bn package of support announced last week is not of
adequate size and appears to be only a tenth of what was proposed
by the government's own Education Recovery Commissioner.
"Last year the Chancellor spent £840m in just one month on his
"Eat Out to Help Out" scheme. It is striking that in one month
the government spent almost as much subsidising meals in pubs and
restaurants as it is now proposing to spend to fund education
recovery over one full year for around 9 million children.
"The next school year should be a year of education recovery. For
this, schools and colleges will need a better funded plan which
gives them a realistic chance to catch up on the lost learning."
