Report into lockdown impact on lost schooling must serve as 'wake-up call', MP says
A new report warning of the devastating impact of missed schooling due to lockdown must serve as "a wake up call" to ministers, a Black Country MP has said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said pupils in the UK stand to lose an average of £40,000 each in earnings after being forced to miss months of school because of Covid.
The report said exam grades could suffer and that disadvantaged pupils would be worst hit.
It urged ministers to ramp up funding to meet the scale of the problem, saying £1.5 billion invested up to now in "catch up" services did not go far enough.
Schools across the country are closed to most pupils until at March 8 at the earliest, which coupled with closures during last year's lockdown will deprive children of half a year's worth of learning.
Shadow City Minister Pat McFadden, the MP for Wolverhampton South East, said: “This report should act as a wake up call on the long term effects of so much missed education over the past year.
"It suggests that without major corrective action the school pupils of today could see a long-term negative effect on their opportunities and earnings.
"The estimate the effect could be up to £40,000 in reduced lifetime earnings for some of the pupils effected and that the worst effects will fall on the lowest income households.
"This report reinforces the need for some really big thinking and a national plan to help pupils recover from the education they have lost. ”
Mr McFadden said the issue was "bigger than the impact on the individual children", with the report saying the impact on future earnings could be so bad that tax revenues could be hit, resulting in an impact on public finances.
He said: "This is about our overall future economic prosperity to, so we all have an interest in doing whatever we can to help today’s generation of school pupils catch up on the education they have lost."
A DfE spokesperson said the Prime Minister had been clear that the impact of extended closures on pupils' learning would take more than a year to make up.
"The Government will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their learning over the course of this parliament," said the spokesperson.
