The Government’s spending watchdog report into how children’s education was supported during the early stages of the pandemic - between March and July 2020 - found that had aspects of its response been done ‘better’ or ‘more quickly’, it would have been ‘more effective’ in mitigating the loss of learning that pupils faced as a result of the disruption.
The report described the DfE’s response as ‘largely reactive’ and criticises the DfE for not setting clear expectations for in-school and remote learning ‘earlier’ and addressing the barriers that disadvantaged children faced ‘more effectively’.
Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said, ‘The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic was an unprecedented challenge for the Department for Education and schools. During the early months, the Department gave schools considerable discretion in how they supported their pupils, which reduced demands on schools but contributed to wide variation in the education and support that children received.
‘The evidence shows that children's learning and development has been held back by the disruption to normal schooling. It is crucial that the Department monitors the impact of its catch-up arrangements, particularly on disadvantaged children, and acts on the results.’
The report concluded, ‘It is crucial that the Department now takes swift and effective action, including to learn wider lessons from its Covid-19 response, and to ensure that the catch-up learning programme is effective and reaches the children who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, such as those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged.’
Long term effects
The disruption to schooling is likely to have long-term adverse effects on children's learning and development, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the report states.
It highlighted the Ofsted reports in late 2020, which found that primary school leaders most commonly identified that pupils had lost some of their knowledge and skills in reading. Younger primary pupils were worst affected, with negative impacts on social and communication skills, speech and listening skills.
Also mentioned in the report was the research by the Education Endowment Foundation, which projected that school closures in the 2019/20 academic year might widen the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers by between 11 per cent and 75 per cent, with a median estimate of 36 per cent, likely reversing progress in narrowing the gap since 2011.
Lost learning
The report said that in September 2020, the DfE commissioned Renaissance Learning and the Education Policy Institute to research the quantitative impact of lost time in education on children’s academic development. Interim findings from this research, based on assessments taken by children in the first half of the 2020 autumn term, were published in February 2021 and found that children in primary schools had experienced, on average, an estimated learning loss of just over three months in maths, and were typically between 1.7 and 2.0 months behind in reading. Early assessments expect disadvantaged children to have lost out disproportionately from the disruption to schooling.
In its July 2020 survey, the NFER found that 61 per cent of teachers estimated that the learning gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had widened since the previous year. Furthermore, teachers in the most deprived schools were more than three times more likely to report that their pupils were four months or more behind in their curriculum learning than teachers in the least deprived schools.
Catch-up
From April 2020, the DfE developed Covid-19 response plans to support schools and vulnerable children. It also established nine regional education and children's teams (REACT), which focused particularly on vulnerable children.
However, it was not until the end of June that it began to formulate a plan that set out ‘objectives, milestones and risks’ across the Department.
In June 2020, a £1 billion programme to help children and young people catch up on learning lost during the period of disrupted schooling was announced. The programme consists of a £650 million universal catch-up premium allocated to schools on a per-pupil basis, and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme targeted at disadvantaged children. In February 2021, the a further £700 million of funding was announced by the DfE.
The DfE said disadvantaged students have been most heavily affected by the pandemic and it was targeting the majority of our £1.7bn catch-up plans towards those most in need. It has also appointed Sir Kevan Collins as the Education Recovery Commissioner to oversee a long-term plan to tackle the impact of lost learning.
A DfE spokesperson said, ‘This pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to all areas of life, but we have acted swiftly at every turn to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provide extensive support for schools, colleges and early years settings.
‘Schools have been open to vulnerable pupils throughout the pandemic, and getting all children back into the classroom – as they are now – has been the department’s number one priority during the periods of national lockdown.
‘We have invested over £2 billion into schemes to provide pupils with devices for remote education and ambitious catch-up plans – with funding targeted at disadvantaged children and young people who need support the most.’
Closing the gap
Robert Halfon MP, chair of the Education Committee said, ‘Children from disadvantaged backgrounds were already facing an ever-widening attainment gap, and months of disruption to learning has stretched the educational divide still further. What the Government needs now is a long-term comprehensive plan to tackle this deep social injustice. By expanding family hubs and early years help, ensuring catch-up funding and pupil premium gets to those children that really need it and investing in mental health support, we can start to close a chasm that has existed for far too long.’
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said that it is ‘understandable’ that the Government would not have an off-the-shelf plan for schools having to operate under an extended lockdown, as was the case from March 2020, but it ‘continued to dither and delay over many months’.
He added, ‘The impact of this past year will not disappear overnight. Measures need to be in place not just for the remainder of this academic year but for the foreseeable future to ensure no child is left behind.’
Councillor Judith Blake, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said that councils are particularly concerned about the needs of disadvantaged children who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
She added, ‘It is vital that catch-up support is strictly targeted to avoid any further widening of education gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.’
Kate Green MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said, ‘Ministers left thousands of children without the ability to learn, with months of school being missed before the first laptops were distributed to children, and failed to engage to support vulnerable children to attend school acknowledging this put them at increased risk of harm.’
- Support for children's education during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic is available here
