For this year’s Liberal Democrat Party Conference, EPI has partnered with Action Tutoring, Get Further and Impetus to hold a public panel: Four years on from the pandemic: has education recovered?
Education Policy Institute’s latest research on learning loss as a results of the pandemic shows that, while reading has caught up, learning loss persists in maths and is the equivalent of two months of learning for primary pupils, and four months for secondary-age pupils. Moreover, the pandemic also widened the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers – EPI’s latest Annual Report finds that in 2019, progress in closing the gap had already started to stall and then between 2019 and 2022, the disadvantage gap widened across all educational phases, now standing at 18.8 months at the end of KS4 and 3.5 grades in the 16-19 phase. EPI’s next Annual Report using 2023 data will be published in August offering the latest insights into the disadvantage gap ahead of the event. EPI analysis also shows the pandemic impacted pupil groups differently, crucial for targeting effective interventions, and significantly, the pandemic appears to have had a bigger effect on girls’ attainment than boys. Beyond educational attainment, we also see soaring rates of absence and social, emotional, and mental health needs since the pandemic, particularly in the most vulnerable pupil groups.
Summer 2024 marks the end of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), the previous Government’s flagship education recovery programme and while schools and colleges are encouraged to continue offering tutoring to those who need it from their existing budgets, from September 2024 there are no targeted national education recovery policies in place, despite the evidence showing that the effects of the pandemic continue. However, the Liberal Democrats have pledged to introduce a ‘Tutoring Guarantee’ for every disadvantaged pupil who needs extra support and raise school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year.
This panel will bring together politicians, school leaders and other education stakeholders to consider, four years on from the pandemic, has education recovered? Panellists will discuss progress so far including what has worked well and what we can learn from former policy and then look to the future, considering what a continued education recovery strategy should look like in the next parliament to ensure pupils, schools and colleges can truly put the pandemic behind them.
We are delighted to be joined by Susannah Hardyman, Action Tutoring; Sarah Waite, Get Further; Ben Gadsby, Impetus; Neil Small, The Kemnal Academy Trust and Jonathan Simons, Public First. Natalie Perera, EPI’s Chief Executive, will chair this session.
** Note: This event will take place in the conference secure zone. To access the secure zone you will need to obtain a pass directly from the Liberal Democrat Party.**
