Government Continues to ‘Pledge Big Investments’ to Help Children Recover Lack of Learning, Says Gavin Williamson | Politics News

The government continues to “pledge significant investments” to help students catch up on learning lost due to the pandemic, said Gavin Williamson.

The education secretary’s comments come after the Prime Minister’s catch-up Czar Sir Kevan Collins resigned last week, claiming that the government had not provided enough money to finance a real school recovery plan.

Sky News understands that the proposal submitted to the Treasury to help schools recover from learning lost during the COVID crisis was worth around £ 15 billion, with 100 additional hours of instruction per student.

A £ 1.4 billion package was unveiled by ministers last Wednesday, with plans denounced as a “wet firecracker” by the unions.

Mr Williamson said on Monday the total stimulus package was now worth more than £ 3bn, including an additional £ 1bn that will be spent on tutoring courses, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

He said the fund will help close the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.

In the Commons, the education secretary promised a “tutoring revolution” which would translate into six million 15-hour tutoring lessons for schoolchildren and two million 15-hour lessons for 16-19 year olds who have need extra support to catch up.

And he said 13th graders will have the opportunity to repeat their last year “when appropriate.”

He claimed that the evidence shows that a high quality tutoring course has been shown to increase results by three to five months, so additional tutoring will be “vital” for young people to make up for lost teaching hours. over the past year.

He told MPs: “Helping our children recover from the impact of the pandemic is a top priority. Students, parents and staff have all been disrupted and we know continued actions are needed to help. ..