Commenting on Impact of school closures in Key Stage 1 on attainment and social skills of pupils in Year 3 and Year 4 in academic year 2022/2023, a report published by the National Foundation Educational Research, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The NFER report shows that schools, in conditions of growing social difficulty, are doing all they can to support pupils. But they are working at the limits of what they can afford. Their recognition of the importance of pupil wellbeing and of addressing the disadvantage gap is not matched by a government which has abandoned any thought of levelling-up. This failure will have long-lasting educational and social consequences. There is no getting around the fact that whoever the next government is they will need to invest heavily in education, to enable a programme of recovery from the effects of austerity and the pandemic alike.”