An internal government row over whether to pay the billions needed to extend the school day as part an ambitious post-Covid education plan intensified today.

On Sunday Tes revealed how ministers’ hopes of securing the £15bn needed to fund the catch-up scheme, which has the controversial longer school day as it’s centrepiece, are fading.

Time is running out and so far chancellor Rishi Sunak is only allowing for £1.5 billion, a tenth of what is required. Sources say that would effectively scupper the extended school day, reducing it to no more than a small-scale pilot. 

Now supporters of the idea, which has backing from 10 Downing Street and the Department for Education, have leaked the full plan in an apparent last-ditch attempt to force the Treasury’s hand. 

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It shows that the longer school hours would amount to around an extra half-hour a day, confirming a key element of the plan revealed by Tes last month.

The fight for funding for an extended school day

The presentation of a report by Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s education recovery commissioner, leaked to The Times, says this would amount to an additional 100 hours of schooling a year for all pupils from 2022 and a minimum 35-hour week.

Crucially, the plan would give schools freedom over how they chose to extend the school day, and teachers would be paid more for additional work.

It proposes that the recovery plan should be funded through a “recovery premium” with £12 billion of the £15 billion paid directly to schools to be targeted towards disadvantaged pupils.

However, while heads would be given autonomy over spending, their spending choices would also be monitored by an expanded Ofsted, according to the leaked report.

The 56-page presentation, dated April 15, hints that an extra year of sixth form should be considered if students cannot complete A-level courses, described as “develop additional learning time for Year 13 (eg funded 3rd year)” in the report.

It also proposes additional tutoring for 5 million pupils and training for 500,000 teachers.

Sources close to the discussions told Tes that the leak was “a fairly transparent last-ditch attempt to get HMT [the Treasury] to fund [the extended school day]”, adding that “the idea is, of course, that people read the article and say that’s a good thing and put pressure on HMT to pay for it”.