Commenting on the report from the Education Policy Institute
(EPI) setting out a £13.5 billion education recovery package,
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“This is an excellent contribution to the debate about how to
best support children and young people in the wake of the
pandemic. There will be different views on the items in the
shopping list of proposals, but it is great to have solid, costed
ideas.
“We particularly like the fact that the report has one eye on the
long-term future and the possibility of extending these
initiatives. In its last annual report, EPI modelling found that
on current trends the education attainment gap between
disadvantaged children and other children will never close. As a
society, we have to do more to address this inequality and
improve the life chances of all children and young people
regardless of background.
“The headlines about this package of measures are likely to be
around extending school hours, and summer wellbeing programmes –
which have a great deal of merit as long as they are properly
resourced and do not increase the workload of leaders and
teachers to an even more unsustainable level.
“But there are also many other very important proposals in this
package, including increased funding for disadvantaged children
in the early years, and disadvantaged students in 16-19
education, which seem so obviously right that the government
simply must act.
“In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from the Education
Recovery Commissioner Sir on the plans
he is currently developing, and we appeal to the government to
ensure that it backs up these plans with the funding that is so
clearly required both immediately and in the longer term.”
