Parents worry it will take a year or more for pupils to recover learning

NEARLY one-third of concerned parents think it will take at least a school year for their child to recover learning lost during the pandemic, a report suggests.

Around two in three parents are concerned that their child has missed out on learning as a result of school closures over the past year.

Among the parents concerned about learning loss, almost one-third think recovery will take a school year or more – and 9% of secondary school parents think that their child will never make up for the effects of the pandemic. Parents are now far more confident about the return to school than they were before the summer holidays, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found.

Christine Farquharson, a senior research economist at IFS, said: “Most parents agree that their child has lost out academically over the last year.

“But while close to half of those concerned think the damage will be relatively short-lived, one in 10 secondary school parents think their child will never catch up.”

INCREASED investment and more staff are needed to help “fix” Scotland’s “overwhelmed mental health services for good”, according to the LibDems.

Activists at the party’s Scottish spring conference heard how pressure on services was increasing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

To help tackle issues such as long waiting times, they called for 15 per cent of any increase in health spending to go towards mental health care.

A motion also said an “urgent task for recovery from the pandemic” is to boost the mental health workforce, adding that “key” to this is more counsellors being taking on to complement the work of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

Health spokesman Alex ColeHamilton said: “It’s time for Scotland to put the recovery first and fix our overwhelmed mental health services for good.

“We need to expand the number of counsellors and get the health service to help them tackle mental health problems in communities, schools and workplaces.”