There are “serious dangers” in “assuming schools are back to normal” after the Covid pandemic, a leading education expert warns in a report commissioned by headteachers’ leaders.
As a consequence of the pandemic, schools are still dealing with challenges that are “extremely unevenly distributed”, writes Tim Oates, group director of assessment research and development at Cambridge University Press and Assessment, in the new report.
“As yet, we have devised inadequate responses to the scale and depth of the problems,” he adds.
The report, commissioned by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), warns that schools will continue to see challenges unfold over the next five to 10 years as children whose development was impacted by the pandemic move through the system.
Calls to ‘remove long shadow’ of Covid
The paper comes as five children’s rights organisations have called on the government to invest in efforts to “remove the long shadow” of the pandemic from children’s lives. The organisations told the Covid-19 Inquiry that the pandemic exacerbated deep inequalities.
But Mr Oates says that assuming schools have been able to go back to normal fails to recognises the support they need to return to pre-pandemic levels of attainment and equity.
Instead, he warns schools are facing a range of different problems, including increasing absence, widened attainment gaps, impacted reading and maths progress for certain groups, and worsening mental health and social and emotional skills.
The report also warns of research showing that children who were born or were very young during the pandemic face diminished social, cognitive and language development - and says this is “hitting the schooling system from the bottom”.
”I do not believe that we should adapt schools to accommodate this lower level of infant development and widespread absence,” Mr Oates writes.
He says the government must urgently work to remedy these problems rather than accepting them.
Government urged to develop new policy
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL, said schools are dealing with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, such as absence, alongside “severe budget pressures, staff shortages and a special educational needs system on the brink of collapse”.
“We urge the new government to work with us on developing targeted, well-funded policies that respond to the challenges outlined in this report,” he said.
To have the most impact, support must be targeted, Mr Oates says. However, currently the picture of effective practice in schools is “inadequate”.
Without action, he warns that the residual impacts of the pandemic could transform schooling as affected children move through provision.
In one secondary in a deprived area that Mr Oates works with, he recounts how the curriculum has “inadvertently” been adapted to not require reading to access content due to the impact on reading progress.
The attempts to close learning gaps
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) was intended to help close learning and attainment gaps post-pandemic.
Mr Oates writes that the NTP achieved “uneven penetration and adoption, particularly among disadvantaged groups”.
But funding for the NTP is no longer available as of this year, and take-up had already been affected by year-on-year reductions in the subsidy for school participation.
During the Covid Inquiry, children’s rights organisations will call for a dedicated children’s recovery plan, including an “adequate” package for education recovery.
”At present, policy actions do not seem to match the nature of the public policy challenge,” Mr Oates concludes.
A DfE spokesperson said it is determined to “improve the life chances of all children”. This includes continuing the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme for another year to help pupils who need extra support with language development.
The spokesperson added that Labour is committed to providing mental health professionals in every school and a free breakfast club in every primary.
