‘OUR PUPILS ARE LOCKED OUT OF KEY LEARNING...’
Mentoring organisation boss on tackling challenges
SCOTLAND’S most disadvantaged young people have been “locked out” of education during lockdown, according to the founder of a charity mentoring school pupils.
Iain MacRitchie, founder and chairman of award-winning MCR Pathways, said research carried out by the charity showed 70% of the organisation’s mentees did not do any school work in the first lockdown.
He said one-to-one support will be vital for young people to recover from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – and then to thrive.
The charity yesterday received the backing of the Scottish Government as it announced MCR Pathways and charity Columba 1400 will benefit from a major £19.4 million funding pot to be used to support a six-year mentoring programme.
The month before lockdown, MCR Pathways published the results of a two-year study looking at the impact of the scheme.
It showed 81.6% had progressed to university, college and employment versus a national number of 59.8%.
“So we were,” Iain crest of a wave.”
He continued: “The analysis used world-leading research methods, and that opened up dialogues with not just our government but other governments, other countries potentially ... and then lockdown happened. said, “on the
“But there was no way we were going to stop. We needed to keep the support going but we had no idea how to do it.”
Set up in Glasgow in 2007, MCR Pathways matches a young person with a mentor who they will meet once a week for 50 minutes for at least one year, usually longer.
Like other organisations, MCR looked to move online with a virtual mentoring platform, but that raised questions about how to ensure the online resource was safe to use.
It was also vital, Iain said, to ensure that the young people had the final say in how the system was used.
Within two weeks a virtual platform was up and running and within six weeks all staff were kitted up with the right technology to use it.
Some 300 laptops and unlimited data went out to the young people who needed them most.
Iain said: “It was phenomenal. Most importantly, we let the young people design it.”
Of the 2500 young people who take part in mentoring across 12 council areas, just under 2000 stayed engaged on the new computer system.
Despite the huge changes going on in the system, MCR continued to recruit mentors and young people.
The charity also launched in new local authorities, such as Clackmannanshire, Shetland and Perth & Kinross as well as expanding to nine schools in Edinburgh and six in Aberdeen.
While juggling all of this, Iain said he was beginning to feel concern about anecdotal evidence
There was no way we were going to stop
coming from young people.
The charity set up a survey and more than 1000 teenagers took part.
Iain said: “Our survey was the biggest take from teenagers experiencing disadvantage saying exactly what they were going through and, more importantly, exactly what they needed when schools came back.”
Results from the study showed that 70% of young people did not do any learning during the first lockdown due to issues such as caring responsibilities and lack of equipment.
Some 50% of young they could not easily the information sent teachers.
And, perhaps surprisingly, when asked what would really help some of the MCR people said understand to them by them learn at home, 42% wanted hard copies rather than online resources.
Iain said: “It was very clear that schools needed to be full time. It was not just about education for our young people: schools are safe havens, they are community hubs, they are where aspiration is made.
“Our young people weren’t locked down, they were locked out and remain locked out of the chance for a better version of their future.
“When we asked what would help them the most, the top of the list was their mentor, closely followed by one-to-one time with their teacher.”
As well as growing the reach of the charity throughout lockdown, Iain is adamant that MCR Pathways is a vital part of the Covid recovery for Scotland’s most disadvantaged young people
This year, he wants MCR Pathways to reach 4000 young people across the country, eventually growing to 10,000.
Some of the technology developed rapidly during lockdown will be kept, allowing for a blended approach to meetings, both in-person and online, as well as giving the potential for support to continue during holidays and study leave periods.
Iain said: “We risk having a lost generation of young people and so you need a bit of hope, because hope will drive a bit of confidence. And once you have confidence you get aspiration.
“We’ve had a year of chaos but one-to-one support is the single most important way out of this for our young people, to make up for the deficit of what they have experienced.”