Commenting on the first set of findings of the COVID Social
Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) longitudinal study,
published today (Thursday), Dr Mary Bousted, Joint
General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
“The findings in this report lay bare the inadequacy of the
Government’s response to the pandemic. Whether it was the slow
roll-out of laptops or the failure to heed warnings on increased
safety measures for schools, this was a catalogue of errors. A
decade of real-terms funding cuts made schools and pupils more
vulnerable, undermining pupils' educational opportunities -
particularly in more disadvantaged areas. To compound this error,
the Chancellor's failure to meet the spending recommended for
education recovery by Sir , the Government's own
recovery tsar, led both to his resignation and to severe corner
cutting. This betrayed a clear lack of seriousness around
Government when it came to young people's futures.
"Much of this failure stems from the Government's unwillingness
to listen to the profession. They were very slow to come round to
schools leaders' ways of thinking on tuition, with too much time
and effort and funding wasted on a National Tutoring Programme
that did not command support. The NEU is pleased that this course
has been corrected, and more children will come to benefit from
support, but there remains a disconnect between schools and
ministers on too many other issues, with ministers continuing to
dismiss the need for a recovery programme based on creative and
practical learning.
“Our own members tell us that the most effective intervention
would be to increase the numbers of teachers, something that very
few schools have been able to do. This comes down to a
fundamental question of funding, which government shows every
intention of trying to cut further, amidst a cost-of-living
crisis that will only worsen. The Government would do well to
look to its own poor record on recruitment and retention of
teachers since 2010, and consider its causes: workload, pay, and
excessive accountability measures.”
