Coronavirus: Education catch-up plan must include early years - analysis

It also states that high quality, accessible early years provision is needed as part of the recovery package to mitigate learning losses during the pandemic and narrow the widening gap in inequality in education.

The latest analysis by EPI for the Department for Education (DfE) shows many children had already experienced as much as three months of lost learning by the autumn term, with further losses likely following another period of remote learning at the start of this year.

Modelling shows that, without ambitious funding and interventions which tackle the scale of lost education, there are likely to be severe long-run consequences for young people’s education, earnings and life chances, which would in turn bring damage to the wider economy.

The preliminary analysis has been released to inform the Government’s recovery plans. A final EPI report, which sets out a precise long-term funding package and proposes a series of policy recommendations on catch-up interventions, will be published next month.

It is recommended that the £10-15bn funding should be targeted towards existing cost-effective, evidence-based interventions, centred around additional academic programmes, improved teacher quality and support, support for vulnerable pupils and extra-curricular programmes.

The recovery package must encompass early years and post-16 education, as well as supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing.

Commenting on the analysis, Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the EPI said, ‘This is not a forecast of inevitable doom and gloom for today’s children, but a call to action for the adults and policymakers of today. 

‘Our modelling shows that a funding boost for education in the range of £10-£15bn is needed in England to counter the pandemic’s effects. The evidence clearly shows that catch-up is not a natural process - it requires active and sustained investments in high-quality teaching and interventions.

‘If we are able to avert large, long-run economic costs with a properly funded recovery package, this will be a vivid demonstration of the incredible long-term value of investing in education, far larger than most government infrastructure projects.’ 

In response to the analysis, a Government spokesperson said, ‘We are working with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure all pupils have the chance to recover from the impact of the pandemic as quickly and comprehensively as possible – and we have appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to specifically oversee this work.

‘As part of this we have already invested £1.7 billion in ambitious catch-up activity, including high-quality tutoring and summer school provision. The majority of the funding is targeted towards those most in need, while giving schools the flexibility of funding to use as they believe best to support their pupils.’

Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of betraying children by ‘overpromising and under-delivering on catch-up’.

‘After a decade of neglect of children’s learning, with rising class sizes and increasing child poverty, the Conservatives’ catch-up funding amounts to a measly 43p per child a day,’ she said.

‘Their inadequate, poorly targeted tutoring programme is leaving thousands without support and they have no plan for children’s wellbeing despite having had months away from their friends.’

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, highlighted that an educational divide has been growing over recent years and increasing child poverty left many children extremely vulnerable when the pandemic struck.

‘We agree with the report’s conclusions that overcoming the pandemic is possible and that it should serve as a catalyst for sustained improvements in education,’ said Dr Bousted. 

‘The scale of learning lost cannot be overcome by some short term, piecemeal measures such as catch-ups. This will require years of work and investment, not just in school but also extending the post-16 offer which has been cut so hard over the last decade.’

She added, ‘The report exposes the inadequacy of the Government plan to spend just £250 per pupil on educational recovery, whereas the United States are spending £1,600 per pupil and the Netherlands £2,500.’ 

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, called on the Government to commit to make the required funding available. 

‘Other countries have signalled heavy investment in young people and the services they require,’ he said. ‘Here schools have had very little help to defray the costs associated with the pandemic, while technical changes to the way the pupil premium is calculated has resulted in schools losing funding for those pupils that need most support. The nation’s children deserve better.’

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