Costs of lost schooling exposed

Lower educational progress and skills could hit North hard, think-tank warns

NORTHERN BUSINESS and education leaders are calling for “urgent action” from the Government to prevent a lost generation of children, as a new report reveals the costs to the economy of missed schooling could amount to hundreds of billions of pounds.

A leading economic thinktank suggests that while there is no simple North-South divide in the likely impact of coronavirus across England, in poorer northern areas children may be especially at risk from lost schooling.

The Government has been urged to hand over more cash by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Northern education and business leaders.

A report from IFS today suggested schools face a shortfall of £28.5bn for Covid catch-up, as the funding given by the Government to help with lost learning is “insufficient”. It has called for a stronger policy response.

An author of the report also said northern communities are particularly vulnerable due to challenges to remote learning and high absence rates – including in Oldham, Rochdale and Knowlsey.

Luke Sibieta, a research economist at IFS and an author of the report, told The Yorkshire Post: “The many disadvantaged children across northern communities will have remote learning extremely hard, especially if they lacked the necessary digital equipment or study space.

“In addition, many children across the North-West and Yorkshire will have missed out on weeks or maybe a month of normal schooling in the autumn too, especially when infection rates were high in October and November and many pupils were having to self-isolate.”

The report from the IFS says losing half a year of schooling will contribute to lower educational progress and skills, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, with a potential cost of £350bn on the future economy, due to lost income of £40,000 per person over their lifetime. The think-tank also estimated £100bn less in tax revenue over the long run.

The IFS said the Government’s current £1bn Covid Catch Up Fund allocated across the UK so far doesn’t “come close” to tackling the scale of this challenge.

Mr Sibieta said: “Lost learning represents a gigantic long-term risk for future prosperity... the future path of inequality and wellbeing. We therefore need a policy response that is appropriate to the scale of the problem”.

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a lobbying group representing northern businesses, said long-term action is needed from the Government, particularly across areas hit hardest in the North where there are high levels of long-term disadvantaged children. This includes backing a northern mentoring programme for every disadvantaged pupil at GCSE level.

Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Treasury Minister and vice-chair of the NPP, said: “We need to ensure this funding is properly targeting those who have the furthest to climb.”

A Government spokeswoman said: “The Government will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their learning.”

We need a response that is appropriate to the scale of the problem. Luke Sibieta, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

THE necessity of getting children back to school as soon as possible is given new emphasis today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ report on the profoundly disturbing long-term impact of months away from the classroom.

Lost schooling could cost a generation of children £350bn in earnings over the course of their lifetimes, a staggering sum in itself, and one which underlines the potential damage the pandemic has inflicted on their prospects for the future.

This must not be allowed to happen. The IFS makes the telling point that, against the scale of the damage done by school closures, the Government’s plan to spend £1.5bn on helping children catch up simply does not go far enough, given that the cost of half a year’s schooling amounts to £30bn.

Boris Johnson’s target of March 8 for reopening schools cannot come soon enough for children and their parents. Despite their best efforts to home-school, assisted by the hard work of teachers offering support online, there can be no doubt that many pupils have both fallen behind in their education and suffered emotional consequences as a result of being separated from friends.

One way to ensure that deadline is met would be the immediate vaccination of teachers and other schools staff, which at present rates of inoculation could be achieved in a matter of days, thus ensuring classrooms could open with the minimum risk of driving up rates of infection.

The importance of getting schools open again cannot be overstated, for the welfare of children and parents alike. Lord Jim O’Neill, of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, is correct in asserting that the pandemic has widened the existing disadvantage gap in education.

The Government must act to close it, and commit whatever funds are necessary to prevent children’s lives being blighted for years ahead.