Education ministers faced departmental questions in the House of Commons on Monday, although the Secretary of State was unable to attend due to testing positive for Covid.
Labour’s shadow education secretary and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Bridget Phillipson MP, asked about the continuing rise of children out of school due to Covid. Additionally, she questioned whether or not the Department was prioritising children’s learning, quoting Sir Kevan Collins that the Government’s plan risked “failing hundreds of thousands of pupils.” She said that Labour’s “Children’s Recovery Plan” meets the scale of the impact on learning and wellbeing. Schools Minister Robin Walker MP only briefly responded, highlighting the £5 billion that the Government is investing in education recovery.
Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP, asked about persistent absences. Referencing the Centre for Social Justice’s recent report on absences post-lockdown, Halfon said that ‘more than 100,000 “ghost children” have still not returned to school for the most part, almost 800 schools are missing entirely a class-worth of pupils, and more than 13,000 children in year 11—a critical exam year—are severely absent from school.’
Robin Walker MP questioned the use of the word ‘ghost children’, saying that these are ‘flesh and blood children who deserve to be in school and have the chance to benefit from face-to-face education.’ He said that addressing attendance is a top priority for the DfE.
Absences of school staff and students has had a significant impact on engaging students again with regular learning and the ability of schools to effectively deliver ‘catch-up’. North East school leaders have expressed concern that current strategies to address growing persistent absences focus too heavily on data, without understanding the nuances and causes of these absences. Strategies to re-engage children and young people with education must not use raw data to hammer schools, and recognise that persistent absences have causes beyond the school gate.
Covid disruption continues to affect schools, with staff going from one crisis to another. Plans to address recovery must be evidence-based, thinking more seriously about the long-term challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Schools North East will continue to lobby for a more comprehensive approach to education recovery.
