Pupils left behind in pandemic at risk of ‘missing future earnings’

CHILDREN who do not catch up on learning lost during the pandemic are at risk of lower future earnings, the National Audit Office has said, as it warned of knock-on effects on economic productivity and growth.

The report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog examined the Government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme, which aims to help pupils catch up on learning lost during the pandemic.

It found that in summer 2021 pupils were, on average, 2.2 months, 0.9 months and 1.2 months behind the level of attainment that would have been expected in primary maths, primary reading and secondary reading, respectively. This compared with 3.6 months, 1.8 and 1.5 months in autumn 2020.

Furthermore, the NAO said the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils – who account for around half of those receiving tutoring under the flagship scheme – and other pupils at the end of primary school was 3.23 in 2022, compared with 2.91 in 2019.

The NAO said: “Left unaddressed, lost learning may lead to increased disadvantage and missing future earnings for those affected. It is also likely to have adverse impacts on society and the economy, with implications for productivity and growth, particularly if a generation of young people is affected.”

It comes as more than 100,000 members of the National Education Union are expected to go today, in the most disruptive teachers’ strike in more than a decade.

Dr Mary Bousted, the union’s joint general secretary, warned that 85 per cent of schools in England and Wales will be fully or partially closed.

The NAO is calling on the Department for Education (DFE) to use research and evidence to assess education recovery in schools, including whether children have recovered lost learning and whether progress is being made to close the disadvantage gap.

Meg Hillier, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Covid-19 has left its mark on a generation of schoolchildren whose education was severely disrupted.

“DFE is not out of the woods in helping pupils to catch up.

“I am troubled that disadvantaged children continue to have furthest to go to make up lost learning.

“DFE must stay focused on addressing learning loss for all children, as it works to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, which widened during the pandemic. The long-term cost of failing to do so is huge, for pupils and wider society,” Ms Hillier said.

Responding to the report, Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s shadow minister for schools, criticised the Conservatives for “failing to deliver a national tutoring programme that works – with inevitable results, adding: “Now children’s recovery is set to suffer even more because of the Conservative Education Secretary’s abject failure to end the threat of education strikes and come to a settlement with trade unions.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are investing more than £5billion over the next two years on pupil premium funding to improve the outcomes for disadvantaged pupils across England.”

‘Children’s recovery is set to suffer even more because of the failure to end the threat of strikes’