As part of the government’s next steps to boost education recovery, children and young people across England will be offered up to 100 million tutoring hours to help them catch up on learning lost during the COVID19 pandemic.

One course of high-quality tutoring has been proven to boost attainment by three to five months, so tutoring will be vital for young people in recovering the teaching hours lost in the last year. A total of £1.4 billion is being invested, including £1 billion to support up to 6 million, 15-hour tutoring courses for disadvantaged school children, as well as an expansion of the 16-19 tuition fund, targeting key subjects such as maths and English.

£400 million will help give early year’s practitioners and 500,000 school teachers across the country training and support, and schools and colleges will be funded to give some year 13 students the option to repeat their final year.

This builds on the £1.7 billion already announced to help children catch up on what they missed during the pandemic, which includes summer schools and mental health support, bringing total investment to over £3 billion.

The government is committed to making necessary investments to lessen the effects of COVID19 on children’s education. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is eager to ensure that no child is left behind and every child is given a fair chance.

However, the government's plan’s for the recovery of the education sector has received mixed opinions as many express concerns over the funds falling short of what is really necessary to get back on track. After just four months in the position of Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins has stepped down from the position warning that the Government’s education support package “falls far short of what is needed” to meet the scale of the challenge.

Collins warns that our children deserve better, the package of support is “too narrow, too small and will be delivered too slowly”, and he warned “not enough is being done” to help children in the early years, or students aged 16 and over.”

The education recovery plans fall short of what Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins had recommended which was that as part of a long-term plan, schools and colleges should be funded for a flexible extension to school time – the equivalent to 30 minutes extra every day.

PM Boris Johnson is committed to ensuring there will be more coming through to help support our children.

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