Millions of little or no

MORE than two million children have done barely any schoolwork at home during the lockdown, a study suggests.

Around one in five pupils have done none or less than an hour a day, since schools closed partially in March.

Researchers estimate this equates to approximately 2.3 million children across the UK.

Only 17 per cent put in more than four hours of schoolwork a day, says research by the UCL Institute of Education.

The findings come as ministers face pressure to get children back to school as soon as possible.

Feared

Last week, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was forced to admit defeat over plans for all primary schools to fully reopen before the summer holidays.

The research, done in April, suggests children locked down at home spent an average of 2.5 hours doing schoolwork a day.

The figure is around half that suggested by previous research, which implies “learning losses are much greater than feared”.

Children eligible for free school meals appear to be additionally disadvantaged during the lockdown period.

Only 11 per cent of poor children spent more than four hours a day on schoolwork, compared to nearly a fifth of pupils not eligible for the free meals.

The study also reveals that nearly a third of private schools provided four or more online lessons daily, compared with just six per cent of state schools.

It is based on a survey of 4,559 households in the UK during the last two weeks of April.

It finds schoolwork is lowest in the North East where the proportion getting four or more daily pieces of work is nine per cent compared with the UK average of 20 per cent.

Professor Francis Green, the lead author of the study, said the findings paint a gloomy picture of missed schooling.

He said: “The closure of schools, and their only-partial re-opening, constitute a threat to the educational development of a generation of children.

“Everyone is losing out in this generation, some much more than others.

Harm

“Better home schoolwork provision, and an early safe return to school for as many as possible, should now become a top priority for Government.” In the research one in five children on free school meals have no access to a computer at home, compared to seven per cent for other children. Prof Green added: “The