Poorer children need targeted help to recover from pandemic disruption, a thinktank warns, as a quarter of parents think it will take their child a year to catch upTwo in five pupils failed to get minimum learning time during Covid school closuresTwo in five pupils failed to meet the Government's minimum guidelines for learning time during Covid school closures, a damning report has found. The Institute for Fiscal Studies called for catch-up policies to be targeted at poorer pupils to close widening educational inequalities. During the autumn term - when schools were open - poorer pupils spent longer in self-isolation and had less access to school provisions when doing so, the report suggests. While 43% of secondary school pupils in the richest fifth of families had access to online classes while self-isolating, just 35% of their peers in the most disadvantaged homes had access to online lessons. In June, the DfE announced an additional £1.4 billion of funding, on top of the £1.7 billion already pledged for catch-up, to help pupils in England make up for lost learning.

Source: Daily Mirror September 05, 2021 22:52 UTC