Schools lost an average of 60 per cent of face-to-face teaching time over the course of a year battling Covid, causing a “huge shock” to the system, the government’s catch-up tsar has said.

And the maximum amount of in-person learning lost to the pandemic was 180 out of 190 school days (95 per cent), Sir Kevan Collins revealed this week.

Speaking at the Schools North East Curriculum Conference on Wednesday, the education recovery commissioner said there was an average of 115 face-to-face teaching days lost to Covid from the point the country locked down in March 2020 to schools reopening fully in March 2021.

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This amounts to just over 60 per cent of the 190 days in a school year.

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“The maximum we’ve seen is 180 days of the 190, the average is 115, but this is face-to-face learning,” Sir Kevan said.

He went on to reiterate the point at a Chartered College of Teaching event on Thursday.

“Children, on average, have missed 115 out of 190 days,” he said.

“This is a huge shock. And children in England, actually, have faced more days of an absence of face-to-face than any other children in Europe. We’ve never seen this sort of disruption.”

Sir Kevan also said at the Chartered College event that teachers should not be “forced” to work extra hours as part of the Covid recovery effort.

He added that he would “never advocate” increasing teaching time without raising teachers’ pay.