Boris Johnson’s government’s plans to help pupils catch up on learning lost due to the coronavirus pandemic have been widely criticised by teaching unions.
The Department for Education has pledged £1.4bn for proposals that include 100 million extra tutoring hours for children in England and more funding for teacher training.
The prime minister said “we will do everything we can” to support children who have fallen behind over the past year. But the proposals fall far short of what the recovery would cost, with the Education Policy Institute previously putting the figure at £13.5bn.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, described the plan as a “damp squib”, adding: “The funding announced to back these plans is paltry . . . education recovery cannot be done on the cheap.”
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said the funding package “makes a mockery of the prime minister’s claim that education is a priority”.
Elsewhere, the UK’s Brexit minister has reiterated his view that the Northern Ireland protocol is unsustainable. At a meeting of business leaders in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, Lord Forst said the protocol relies on cross-community support “but this situation does risk undermining that”.
He added: “Our number one priority as the UK government is protection of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions, north, south, east and west, and indeed that’s the top priority of the protocol itself in the text.”
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