Commenting before the Prime Minister's
announcement on schools reopening on Monday, the Education Policy
Institute (EPI) has said that it would be "highly desirable for
all children to be back in school before Easter", but that this
should be based on two key tests.
The first test for the government set by EPI,
is that independent health advice should support the reopening
plan and that this should be consistent with keeping the R rate
below 1.
The second test is that the plan for returning
children to school should be practically deliverable for schools,
particularly if this requires children to be tested for Covid
before they are allowed back into
classrooms.
The Education Policy Institute has also
advocated for a larger and more targeted financial plan to
support schools immediately with catch-up learning, including a
significant increase in the Pupil Premium and a widening of
entitlement to the Premium to cover more vulnerable
children.
EPI proposes that a further medium- and
long-term plan for catch up should be announced later this year,
once the scale and nature of learning loss is clearer and a range
of policy options can be carefully
considered.
Commenting ahead of Monday’s
announcement on the reopening of schools, Natalie Perera, Chief
Executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI),
said:
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, children
across the UK have missed a significant amount of time in school,
and this is likely to have had a larger impact on the most
disadvantaged pupils, who find it more challenging to keep up
when they are not in school.
"We hope that the government will be able to
announce this week a plan for the safe return to school for all
children on and after 8th March, but this must meet key tests of
safety and practicality. It is crucial that the government
publishes the scientific advice on reopening schools in order to
secure public confidence in its plans.
“We also need the Prime Minister to announce
further, targeted, support for children - including a big
increase in the Pupil Premium, and a widening of its coverage to
include more highly vulnerable children."
, Executive Chairman of the Education Policy Institute
(EPI) said:
"It would be highly desirable for all children
to be back in school before Easter, but this depends both on the
government's health advice and on a deliverable plan for testing
children. The government
will want to be confident that the return of children won't push
the R rate back above 1, and that if children are to be tested
before going back into the classroom then schools can cope with
the numbers involved.
"We now need to track the impact of the
pandemic on learning, and develop a properly considered and fully
funded plan to catch up on lost learning, which can be
implemented over the medium and long term. So far, the scale of
lost learning time has been hugely greater than the extra support
made available by government, and the Prime Minister will need to
develop a much bolder plan if we are to avoid serious long-term
costs to our younger generation from the
pandemic."
