, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary,
responding to the National Education Union’s The State of
Education: Poverty, the Pandemic and Recovery survey, said:
“The Government’s chaotic response to this pandemic has exposed
inequalities which have been holding children back during a
decade of failed Conservative governments.
“Even before the pandemic, the Conservatives oversaw rising
poverty rates, with thousands more children arriving at school
too hungry to learn and missing out on the creative opportunities
we want all children to be able to enjoy. Now they have committed
just 43p per child per day to help them recover from the pandemic
and delivered a stealth cut to funding to help children on free
school meals reach their potential.
“Labour, parents and teachers are calling on the Government to
prioritise delivering a world class education for every child,
with valued staff supporting them to recover learning and
delivering activities that promote wellbeing, rather than
half-baked ideas about the length of the school day or term
dates.”
Ends
Notes to editors
- 43p per day for each child:
|
Total funding announced
|
720,000,000
|
|
Total school children in England
|
8,890,357
|
|
Days in school year
|
190
|
|
Spending per child per day
|
0.43
|
Source Govt funding: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-education-recovery-package-for-children-and-young-people
Source school year: The School Day and Year, House of Commons
Briefing Paper 2019, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN07148/SN07148.pdf
