Displaying items by tag: catch up

The man charged with overseeing plans to help children catch up on missed education in England has resigned just four months into the job. Sir Kevan Collins stepped down over the government’s pledge to spend just under one-and-a-half billion pounds on its recovery plan, calling it a ‘half-hearted approach which didn’t come close to meeting the scale of the challenge’. Boris Johnson said more resources will be ‘coming through’ to support children when catch-up plans were labelled a ‘damp squib’. Head teachers were "hugely disappointed" by a £1.4bn Covid recovery package, which breaks down to £50 extra per pupil per year. A report says £13.5bn is needed for pupils to catch up. Most of the funding will be for tutoring to make up for lost learning.

Please pray for young people like Frances who have had their lives put on hold. Having worked hard at university and achieved her dream job, she was making plans for the future until lockdown made her unemployed. Now there is a question mark over everything. 18-year-old Eleanor had her education disrupted across two academic years, in both school and university. Last year, her A-levels were caught up in exam chaos. As a university student this year she has been taught entirely online, unable to make personal contact with other students or tutors. She faces uncertainty around her job prospects, whether her A-level grades are ‘proper’, and if her social life will recover after so much time at home. Evidence shows primary pupils' levels of English and maths are ‘significantly lower’ than three years ago. The scale of the disruption will need a ten-year programme to get back on track. Many students now have mental health issues, particularly depression.