Commenting on
Is the Catch-up programme fit for
purpose?, a new report
from the House of Commons Education
Committee, Dr Mary
Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
"This is a serious warning from the
Education Committee that if government doesn’t provide enough
support for disadvantaged young people, they risk baking in the
deepening inequalities between disadvantaged children and their
better off peers.
"There is a role for tutoring because
so many extra students need individual attention due to Covid
disruption, but the catch-up funding should have been allocated
directly to schools and colleges not via
Randstad.
"The view of teachers is that they
need much more opportunity for children to have time in small
groups and more one-on-one time and this requires extra qualified
teachers and more curriculum flexibility than the Department for
Education has thus far allowed.
"It’s common sense that tutoring
programmes should be led by schools and so it is good to see MPs
record that teachers and school staff know their pupils and what
interventions are likely to bring the most benefit. DfE needs to
heed this and allocate the funding to school budgets in a way
that is linked to numbers of children eligible for Free School
Meals.
"Teachers identify counselling and
mental health support as key elements in better supporting pupil
attendance, so it is essential government fast tracks this as a
priority issue.
"Covid exacerbated problems that were
already there for disadvantaged children. The government must now
learn its lesson, get its house in order and start listening to
the education profession on what is needed for the long term to
ensure that no child is left behind."
