The long-lasting effects of the pandemic are still being felt across the North East, as the National Tutoring Programme has re-entered the spotlight this week.
While Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson stated that the NTP risks ‘sucking teachers out of schools’, Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP questioned whether the entire catch-up initiative was ‘fit for purpose’, further raising the pressure on the NTP, as calls for Randstad’s contract to run the programme to be cancelled have grown louder. This week the Education Select Committee released its report into the government’s catch-up programme, in which, among other things, it called for greater transparency on NTP figures, with half termly information published about how many children are accessing the programme, including information on pupil characteristics and regional breakdowns.
In January, however, Robin Walker MP, Minister of School Standards, said that, even though ‘we know there is still work to do, it’s hugely encouraging to see so many students from all backgrounds have been directly reached through the government’s tutoring programme’. This came after the Department for Education announced that 302,000 tutoring courses had begun during the Autumn term.
The latest Schools North East ‘State of the Region’ survey for February 2022 revealed that around 70% of the region’s schools are now engaging with the NTP, a rise of 8% from the previous survey, which took place in November. Flexibility appears to be a key issue standing in the way of schools fully engaging with the NTP. School-led tutoring is the favoured route for engagement among NE schools, being used by the majority of those surveyed (86%).
As reported in the Schools North East ‘State of the Region’ survey, however, many schools have reported significant difficulties with the NTP such as difficulties when trying to access the tutors they need, stating that the system is a complex one to navigate, while others have said that the process was incredibly slow to put in place. Furthermore, reporting on the tutoring that has taken place appears to have created additional workload pressures, just when schools are in dire need of slick and time-effective systems. Despite being labelled as part of the ‘catch-up’ initiative, leadership and admin teams have had to spend a lot of time planning and monitoring impact, taking them away from other responsibilities in their schools.
Those schools in the region who have not engaged with the National Tutoring Programme have cited reasons such as it not being particularly relevant to their communities, or that it lacked the flexibility to meet the needs of their students. Additionally, many schools preferred to use regular classroom teaching staff to catch their students up, as they already have a working relationship with students and schools would prefer to utilise that familiarity to galvanise students’ learning than start again with an NTP tutor.
Mr Halfon spoke during a debate on education spending in the House of Commons this week, addressing his own concerns that the NTP is significantly failing to bridge the gap between the north and south of England, when it should be looking to catch everyone up in the face of the disadvantages that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
‘We know that the NTP is reaching 96% of schools in the South East,’ he said,‘but only 59% in the North East and the North West, so we have got a north-south divide yet again,’ before citing that he had heard evidence that in the most disadvantaged communities, children are approximately eight months behind on their learning after the pandemic.
The views on whether the NTP is effective across the country appear to be conflicted, with Schools Minister Robin Walker stating in January that ‘every pupil – wherever they live – should be supported to get back on track and reach their potential, and that’s what this tutoring programme is doing,’ before reiterating the point that the best way for young people to effectively catch up on any missed learning is to make sure they are in school.
This drive to get schools back to ‘normal’ was addressed by Ms Wilson of the Liberal Democrats, who told the House of Commons that ‘there are concerns the tutoring partners strand of the NTP is sucking teachers out of schools and particularly out of the supply pool’, which will ultimately leave schools worryingly short on options when it comes to covering staff absences.
With just over four months of the current academic year remaining, time will tell whether the NTP will reach its intended target of delivering two million tutoring courses to children.
From a North East perspective, however, it appears that, while some schools in the region see the NTP as a worthwhile tool to use, many are still concerned over the disruptions they may face due to staff and student absences and predict that, due to a lifting of covid restrictions and a rush back to normal, ‘catch-up’ will take much longer than this academic year.
Read the Schools North East ‘State of the Survey February 2022 Report here
