School pupil catch-up money lower in Wales, report finds

As reported by BBC news, cash to help Wales’ pupils catch up is “notably lower” than in some other UK nations, according to new analysis

The Education Policy Institute found £88 per pupil in Wales had so far been allocated – less than half the £200 per pupil announced for Scottish pupils. But it also found that a bigger share of Wales’ funding was targeted at poorer pupils. The Welsh Government said its priority was to enable pupils to return to face-to-face education.

The report also found Wales’ autumn term attendance was the lowest in the UK, dropping to 68% by mid-December. In July, a £29m fund to pay for the equivalent of 900 extra teaching staff and targeted at disadvantaged pupils and those in exam years was announced by the Welsh Government.

Along with additional funding for post-16 pupils, the report calculated that about £40m had been allocated to help Welsh pupils catch up after losing weeks of face-to-face teaching due to the pandemic. The equivalent figure for Scotland is £140m – or £200 per pupil – and in England it is £1.2bn – or £174 per pupil.

The report said while catch-up funding was “clearly lower” in Wales, about half was targeted at more disadvantaged pupils – higher than in England and Scotland. However, it said all four nations should invest more in order to address the scale of the challenge.

The think tank said the nations’ current plans “offer only a fraction of the support that is needed to deal with the huge amount of lost learning time”.

The report also found attendance levels in schools before Christmas mostly reflected rates of coronavirus, which resulted in many pupils having to learn remotely. School attendance was generally lowest in Wales – often under 85% – over the course of the autumn term, while in Scotland it was 90-95%. Figures were lower in disadvantaged areas and for older pupils, dropping to about 50% for Welsh pupils in Year 10 and above by the second week of December.

Plaid Cymru said lower attendance in deprived areas when schools were open and difficulties in accessing online learning meant poorer pupils were at “a double disadvantage”.

The party’s education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian said more clarity was needed about how money for extra teaching staff had been spent.

“Focus must be on being able to provide as much face-to-face learning as possible, targeted at those children who have lost the most learning, and this can only be obtained through a massive recruitment drive,” she said.

The Welsh Government said it recognised pupils’ attendance rate would have been affected by local school decisions and “factors surrounding community transmission”.

“As our children and young people return, we’ll continue to work with local authorities and schools to ensure education continues with as little disruption as possible,” it added.