‘Education recovery in schools in England’ shows learning loss for disadvantaged pupils has been consistently greater than for pupils overall, resulting in the attainment gap growing since 2019.
It reveals the disadvantage gap index (a measure of the difference in attainment between disadvantaged and other pupils) at the end of primary school was 3.23 months in 2022, while it 2019, it was 2.91.
In comparison, it finds that in summer 20201, pupils were on average 2.2 months behind the expected level of attainment in primary maths, 0.9 in primary reading, as opposed to 3.6 and 1.8 months in autumn 2020.
The National Audit Office (NAO) warns that ‘left addressed, lost learning may lead to increase disadvantaged and significant missing future earnings for those affected.
While its report recognises that action taken by the Department for Education (DfE) has helped pupils to make up lost learning with a programme of tutoring, it says that schools were free to choose which pupils would benefit the most. As a result, fewer disadvantaged children than the DfE intended received the support.
Support introduced by the DfE to help pupils catch-up included: the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), and extra direct funding for schools in the form of the catch-up premium ( a per-pupil funding allocation for all schools) in 2020/21 and the recovery premium (an allocation which for primary and secondary schools is based on the number of disadvantaged pupils they have) in subsequent years.
The report also highlights how DfE has not routinely collected information from schools on how this funding was used. Schools are only required to publish a statement each year explaining how they plan to spend the recovery premium and demonstrate that their approach is informed by evidence on what will help pupils catch up on lost learning, says the NAO.
The NAO recommends the DfE further develop its approach to monitoring progress towards achieving its ambitions for pupils’ attainment, and report regularly on progress. It also wants the DfE to model the impact of withdrawing the subsidy for the tutoring programme and the recovery premium after 2023/24 to assess whether this support is financially sustainable given the Government objective for tutoring to become embedded in the school system.
'It is concerning that learning loss for disadvantaged pupils remains greater than for other pupils.'
Head of the NAO Gareth Davies said, ‘The Department for Education needed to take action to support pupils to make up the learning they lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and reach children who had been disproportionately affected by the disruption to schooling.
‘Despite the progress that is being made, it is concerning that learning loss for disadvantaged pupils remains greater than for other pupils. It is vital that the Department maintains its focus on education recovery in the coming years to help all children to catch up and to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged and other pupils.’
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) warned that without recovering lost learning, there could be a negative impact on productivity and social mobility, but pointed out that education has not made it into the Prime Minister’s list of top five priorities.
Head of analysis Jon Andrews explained, ‘Unless we recover this lost learning, there could be a significant negative impact on both productivity and social mobility - yet education has not made it into the PM's list of his top five priorities. The stand-off between Government and unions over pay risks further disruption to learning, with particularly adverse impacts for children who have already fallen behind because of Covid. There is a big gap right now between the view of Government and unions over pay, but it is essential that both sides work hard to find a solution that avoids further setbacks to our country's education recovery.’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, commented, 'Schools have been working incredibly hard to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on pupils, but Government support has been piecemeal and insufficient and its own recovery tsar resigned when ministers failed to back his plans with the funding needed.
'Given the financial squeeze schools are facing, recovery efforts could be undermined further when the tutoring programme subsidy ends, and the National Audit Office is right to question.'
A Department for Education spokesperson said, ‘Almost three million courses have been started through the National Tutoring Programme, revolutionising the way that targeted support is provided in schools.’
- The report is available here
