Schools funding: Much more money and 'big and radical' ideas are needed to tackle lost schooling

This is a familiar set-up for most kids in the UK right now, as they have online lessons at home

A new report looking at the impact of lost schooling on children, is calling for much more money to be spent to help pupils catch-up and for "big and radical" ideas on how to do it..

The the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that "children across the UK are likely to lose at least half a year of normal, in person schooling."

They say this could have serious consequences for the rest of their lives, such as higher inequality and lower future pay - particularly affecting children from disadvantages backgrounds.

They have suggested several options to help children catch up, which include: extending the school year, lengthening the school day, mass repetition of whole school years or summer schools.

UK schools are currently closed to pupils other than children of key workers and those classified as vulnerable in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus.

What can be done to help?

The IFS wants the government, along with teachers and schools, to "think of big and radical ways to increase learning time".

A plan of this scale would "need to involve more people, be they teachers, support staff or tutors".

But all of this is going to cost a lot of money.

At the moment governments from across the UK have set aside £1.5bn to help kids catch-up, but the IFS says this is "highly unlikely" to be enough to "help pupils catch-up or prevent inequalities from widening."

By way of comparison, they say six months of school learning costs the country £30 billion.

They are calling for much more funding to meet this huge challenge and said that "correcting a loss on this scale certainly requires a massive injection of resources".

What is the impact of lost learning?

Schools in all four home nations are currently closed to most pupils

Key findings from the report show that despite remote learning, the loss of in-person schooling is slowing educational progress and skills, particularly for disadvantaged children.

Luke Sibieta, Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies said: "A loss of over half a year of normal schooling is likely to have far-reaching long-run consequences. We will all be less productive, poorer, have less money to spend on public services, more unequal and we may be less happy and healthy as a result."

"Pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds often lack the required digital equipment and study space to participate in effective remote learning," he added.

Lost learning is also affecting children's mental health, "with 27% of young women showing potential mental health problems."