Schools will have to pay at least a quarter of the cost of tutoring accessed through the government’s new national scheme.

Support obtained through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) will only be subsidised by up to 75 per cent, according to the organisations that designed the scheme.

This means schools will have to fork out at least 25 per cent of the costs - which could mean paying £12 for a session that would usually cost £50, for example.

School funding: £1 billion ‘Covid catch-up plan’ unveiled

Coronavirus: Catch-up scheme ‘to focus on pupil premium children’

Exclusive: Covid-19 ‘widens achievement gap to a gulf’

A question and answer document compiled by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) states that schools will be expected to pay for tutoring accessed through the scheme.

Funding the schools coronavirus catch-up scheme

In the “schools” section, in answer to the question: “Do I have to pay for tutoring through the NTP?”, it states: “Yes, but it will be subsidised by up to 75 per cent in the first year, with smaller subsidies in subsequent years.

“This means that in the first year a school can buy a session that would normally cost £50 for £12.”

It adds that private schools are not eligible for the subsidised rates, as the scheme “is designed to enable state-maintained schools to buy tutoring at a reduced cost”.

The government says the NTP - which has been created by the EEF in partnership with The Sutton Trust social mobility charity and others - will “increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people over the 2020-21 academic year”.

“This will help accelerate their academic progress and prevent the gap between them and their more affluent peers widening,” the DfE says.

The organisations behind the scheme say it will give schools access to “heavily subsidised tuition” from an “approved list” of vetted tuition providers.