Commenting on the Education Policy Institute (EPI)'s Annual Report, published today (Mon 18 Dec), which finds that the education disadvantage gap has widened across all educational phases since the pandemic, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said:

“Even before Covid, the attainment gap between pupils from more affluent and less well-off backgrounds was a concern. The government had the chance to take the bull by the horns and show real ambition by not only mitigating the impact of successive lockdowns upon children’s learning, but also by taking lasting action to further close this stubborn gap.

“Unfortunately, ministers failed to offer schools and colleges anything like the resources needed, and have still not set out a long-term plan for the National Tutoring Programme, for which subsidies end next year.

“The issue has been further compounded since Covid by rising levels of poverty affecting more families due to the cost-of-living crisis. The government has done very little to attempt to alleviate the impact of poverty on children, and schools are seeing the effects every day in ways that affect their learning.

“The government needs to do far more to address the underlying causes of poverty and disadvantage in the first place. This includes investing in wider services like social care, family support and mental health services, which have all been decimated over the last decade.”