Commenting on the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on
home learning experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, Geoff
Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“Schools and colleges were given 48 hours’ notice at the
beginning of the first coronavirus lockdown to develop and
deliver remote education for more than eight million children and
young people – something which had never been done before.
“They did an outstanding job in very difficult circumstances and
at great speed to provide this form of learning. Many of these
young people did not have laptops available for them to use or
stable internet connections, or a suitable space in which to work
at home. In many cases, parents were unable to support their
children’s learning as much as they would have liked because of
work and caring commitments. These pressures particularly
affected disadvantaged young people.
“Over the course of the pandemic, the quality of remote education
has improved through increased experience of delivering this type
of learning and the availability of more resources such as
laptops. But it can never be an adequate substitute for the
interaction of learning in a classroom environment and the first
step towards sustained recovery must be an end to the continual
disruption of the past 18 months.
“The government must keep the situation with coronavirus rates
under close review in the autumn term and be ready to provide
more support to schools and colleges if this proves necessary. It
must also provide an education recovery programme backed with
more investment and with a wider scope than tuition programmes.
This study shows that the poorest families were the least likely
to accept an offer of catch-up tutoring, and this clearly shows
that the government must give schools and colleges greater
flexibility about how they use recovery funding to deliver
support based on their knowledge of the needs of their pupils.”
