Just two-fifths (43.7 per cent) of state schools in England participated in the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) in the first month of the 2022 to 2023 academic year, new government data shows.
The Department for Education (DfE) data shows that at least 398,939 course starts were made by pupils receiving catch-up tutoring in the period up to 6 October 2022.
It comes at the same time as full data for the programme was released for past academic year. These stats show that 87 per cent of schools participated last year and the programme hit its revised 2 million course starts target, with 2,144,992 course starts.
But the DfE cannot say how many pupils this equates to, as it says some of the figures collected do not allow it to “accurately identify the full population of individual pupils”.
It says that at the end of last year, 1,323,812 pupils received tutoring through the NTP’s school-led tutoring route, 185,907 pupils through the tuition partner strand, and 92,286 pupils through the academic mentor route.
But the DfE said these figures cannot be aggregated to give an overall number.
The government originally aimed for 776,000 pupils to compete courses delivered via tutors provided by organisations under the NTP.
In the initial contract given to Dutch firm Randstad, which ran the NTP last year, the provider was told: “The tutoring partner pillar targets must align with those of academic mentor pillar to meet a prime total ambition of c776,000 pupils impacted target for 2021-22”.
The data shows that under a quarter (23 per cent) of this target was hit, though the focus of the scheme was shifted to delivering school-led tutoring in March to give schools “the autonomy and support to deliver high-quality tutoring to as many children and young people as possible”. The shift followed widespread criticism of the Randstad-led scheme.
As of last summer, the DfE estimates that just under half (47.4 per cent) of pupils who received catch-up support via school-led tutoring were known to be eligible for free school meals within the past 6 years, and 24.5 per cent were known to have special educational needs.
The take-up number this year comes after school leaders warned that catch-up cash allocated to schools would go “unspent” and have to be returned to the Treasury unless the scheme rules were changed so that schools no longer have to subsidise sessions from their own budgets.
Currently, government NTP funding can be used to pay for 60 per cent of the total cost incurred by a school to deliver catch-up tutoring.
But ministers said the rules would not be changed.
Commenting on the figures today, schools minister Nick Gibb said: “The National Tutoring Programme has transformed the way targeted support is provided for pupils who need it the most. Thanks to the hard work of tutors and teachers, nearly three million courses have been started so far.
“I hope every school that is eligible will deliver one-to-one and small-group tutoring this year, as we move towards embedding tutoring in schools permanently and supporting schools to make best use of increased pupil premium funding.”
School level information also published
Alongside the national data, the DfE also published school-level information this morning showing whether schools have used each strand of the NTP.
The data was promised by former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi earlier this year.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the decision to publish it was ”unhelpful and counterproductive”.
“We have called for schools to be able to access their allocated funding irrespective of whether or not they can afford to further subsidise it themselves.
“This would not cost the government a penny and would give more pupils access to the tutoring scheme. Sadly, this eminently sensible suggestion has been rejected by the government,” she added.
The government started the NTP in 2020 to provide subsidised tutoring to help school pupils catch up on missed learning owing to the pandemic.
Recent data has continued to show the extent of the impact of partial school closures on students’ learning, with a report released today showing that the pandemic has ripped up 10 years’ progress in tackling the disadvantage gap.
