Catch-up for pupils hit by pandemic ‘clearly not working’, says Blunkett

A CATCH-UP scheme for pupils whose learning has been affected by the pandemic is “clearly not working”, Lord Blunkett has warned.

The Labour peer and former Sheffield MP, inset, raised concerns about the effectiveness of the National Tutoring Programme given the high prevalence of current Covid cases among schoolchildren, including his own grandson.

He told the Education Minister Baroness Barran in the House of Lords: “The ONS latest figures for last week show over 600,000 primary school children not in the classroom.

“This would be worrying at any time but obviously with the statistics for the National Tutoring Programme at a miserable 15 per cent of their target, the remedial action that is needed is clearly not working.

“I wonder if the Noble Baroness would go back to the department and work out what’s happened with the contract that was re-let last September?”

She replied:

“My noble Lord is absolutely right to raise the issue of the 600,000 primary children not in school, although I would remind the House that there is a clear expectation that all schools will offer high quality remote learning.

“We are working very actively on the national tutoring program contract and we are confident that we will reach our objectives.” Randstad, which was awarded the NTP contract this year, has faced criticism for lacking the capacity or competence to deliver the scheme “effectively”. Figures released last month showed that only around a quarter of catch-up tutoring courses for this academic year have been delivered by Randstad. Headteachers have suggested that schools are finding the system “confusing and difficult” to navigate.

The Government has set a target of delivering two million courses this academic year.