Tomorrow a new NAO report finds the Department for Education’s
response to the pandemic could have been done better and more
quickly.
Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, , has said it is “beyond comprehension” remains in
post.
The report finds the Department for Education had no plans in
place to manage mass disruption to schooling. The report states
that it was not until the end of June - over three months after
schools closures were announced in the UK - that it began to
formulate a plan that set out objectives, milestones and risks.
Responding to the findings, , Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education said:
“This report confirms what parents and teachers have known for a
year: that a whole generation of children and young people have
been let down by an Education Secretary who lurched from one
crisis to the next, wreaking havoc on their lives.
“As with every other major decision, this report shows that on
education, the government was too late to respond and then didn’t
do enough.
“From the free school meal u-turns, the A-level grading fiasco,
the shamefully slow rollout of laptops, the botched schools
reopening plans, and the failure to take decisive action on this
year's exams, is the
worst Education Secretary in England in a generation. He’s made
such a hash of it, it is quite frankly beyond comprehension that
he‘s still in post.
“Liberal Democrats want to see a ten year education roadmap to
help children and young people recover from the educational and
emotional upheaval they have experienced - both from to the
pandemic itself and the government’s botch job of a response.”
ENDS
Notes to Editor:
Department for Education could have reacted quicker to COVID-19,
NAO finds
National Audit Office report finds that the actions the
Department for Education took to support schools and pupils in
response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could have been
done better or more quickly, and therefore been more effective in
mitigating the learning pupils lost as a result of the
disruption.
The report finds that the Department for Education had no
pre-existing plan for managing mass disruption to schooling on
the scale caused by COVID-19, and it was not until the end of
June that it began to formulate a plan that set out objectives,
milestones and risks.
The NAO recommends that the Department track the longer-term
impact of COVID-19 disruption on all pupils' development and
attainment, focusing particularly on vulnerable and disadvantaged
children, and respond to the results.
This should include assessing the catch-up programme and acting
quickly to ensure it is achieving value for money, as well as
reaching disadvantaged children
