Commenting on a series of reports published today by Ofsted
examining education recovery, Dr Patrick Roach,
General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’
Union, said:
“These reports reflect the tremendous amount of hard work that
teachers and leaders have put in during the course of the ongoing
pandemic to maintain education provision and to mitigate the
pandemic’s damaging impact on children and young people.
“Teachers and leaders have gone above and beyond for their
students, often at the expense of their own health and wellbeing,
and have put huge amounts of time into catch-up strategies, as
well as work to address the social and mental impact which
lockdowns have had on many children and young people.
“However, schools and colleges alone cannot completely make up
for the significant impact of the pandemic on pupils’ progress,
development and emotional health.
“Teachers are reporting that children are arriving at school less
ready to learn and that younger pupils particularly lack the
social and developmental skills typically expected of them. There
has also been an increase in challenging behaviour from pupils of
all ages.
“In these reports Ofsted highlights the scale of the challenge
currently facing the education sector in ensuring the attainment
and wellbeing of children and young people is not left
permanently blighted as a result of this pandemic.
“We have heard the Government make a number of pledges on schools
and SEND provision in the last week. Ministers urgently need to
come good on providing the resources and funding necessary to
achieve the aspirations they have set out.
“Schools and colleges need access to and coordination with fully
funded specialist external services to help meet the needs of all
learners. They also need investment in the teaching workforce
with the provision of pay, working conditions and training which
will sustain recruitment and retention and encourage teachers to
remain in the profession long term.
“Without greater action from Government now, the lingering impact
of the pandemic on children’s development and welfare will only
snowball as the years go on. This will create greater and
avoidable inequalities for this generation of young people.
“Ministers owe it to today’s children and young people to match
the huge recovery efforts being made by teachers and school
leaders.”
