Covid in Wales: Extra help for pupils under recovery plans
- Published
The plans include more funding for older pupils preparing for exams
Extra help for pupils who fall behind with their work will be available, under Welsh Government plans to help Wales recover from coronavirus.
Ministers say they will raise funding for several age groups, including 16 to 18-year-olds preparing for exams.
The government has set aside £320m for policies that are meant to "stabilise Wales" over the next six months.
There are also commitments to attract people back to town centres and deal with a backlog in cancer screening.
Specific costings for many of the projects outlined in the government's Covid-19 Reconstruction: Challenges and Priorities report have not yet been announced.
Funding is coming from spending increases by the UK government and because Finance Minister Rebecca Evans will dip into the Welsh Government's budget reserves, officials say.
The money will be spent during the rest of this Senedd term before elections are due in May 2021.
Eight priority areas have been listed following research conducted over the summer into how Wales should recover from the pandemic.
The document says funding will increase for pupils who have fallen behind, some of it dedicated to years 11, 12 and 13, and particularly those from BAME backgrounds.
Officials say new spending will be in addition to a £29m commitment announced in July to hire more teachers.
'Future is not fixed'
Experts advising the Welsh Government cited research from England about the potential impact of the pandemic on pupils from deprived families.
They said there was a risk that a decade of work to close the attainment gap could be lost.
Counsel General Jeremy Miles, the minister in charge of post-Covid planning, said: "There's no doubt our future will look different as a consequence of coronavirus.
"But that future is not fixed and we have an opportunity to shape it."