Commenting on the latest report from
the National Audit Office on education recovery in schools in
England, Rosamund
McNeil, Assistant General Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
"The NAO’s report highlights the
distance still to cover in closing the attainment gap between
disadvantaged pupils and their peers. The disadvantage gap
continues to be wider than it was in 2019. The report makes clear
that the Government has wasted valuable time diverting funds to
third-party providers, limiting uptake of education recovery
programmes such as the National Tutoring Programme,
and failing to ensure that tutoring was always directed
towards the most disadvantaged
pupils.
"The NEU’s evidence to the NAO made
clear that the pandemic hit after a decade of underfunding and
neglect of education. Pressures on school budgets exacerbated
recruitment, retention and workload pressures that left teachers
and schools without the tools they needed to respond to
crises.
"In its paltry response, the
Government provided less than a third of the funding its own
education recovery commissioner recommended, and now shows every
intention of pulling further funding from the National Tutoring
Programme, leaving schools to pick up the
pieces.
"The Government must commit to
providing adequate funding for education recovery, directly to
schools. The Government must commit to a fully-funded, above
inflation pay rise for school staff, to ensure we address the
urgent recruitment and retention challenge, itself a risk to
education recovery."
