The Children’s Commissioner is advocating longer school days to help make up for “up to twelve to fourteen months of learning lost” during the pandemic.
Dame Rachel de Souza thinks that schools should stay open until 5pm, due to the “constant interruption” that education has faced because of COVID.
In-person teaching has been back all of this past half term, and COVID related absences were at 2.6%, the highest since face-to-face teaching returned in April.
Speaking to Times Radio, Dame Rachel said, “students were worried about catching up, especially those in exam years.”
She acknowledged that some schools were “struggling” to stay open until 5pm, and said, “they’re the ones that need funding, schools shouldn’t be closing at half two.”
The reaction to de Souza's plan is not entirely positive, however, with one Twitter user saying her statements were "vague", and she was not considering the impact on families.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, releases his spending plan and autumn budget will be released on the 27th of October, in which he states a “3-billion-pound turbo-charge to post 16 education”, but Dame Rachel de Souza thinks it should be “at least 5 billion” for education as a whole.
Comentários