The prime minister is set to launch a four-year emergency catch-up plan as new figures reveal the scale of learning loss, according to reports.
Meanwhile recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins is working up plans that would see a “citizens’ army” of teachers, supply teachers, former teachers and students recruited to help pupils who have fallen behind, according to the .
The paper says “unpublished government figures” show that more than 200,000 pupils will move into secondary school this year without adequate reading skills.
And Boris Johnson is set to use a speech to launch an “emergency” four-year catch-up plan to help disadvantaged pupils and present an assessment of the social impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Sunday Times.
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This will happen at some point after the Queen’s speech on 11 May, government sources told the paper.
The problem of learning loss is the prime minister’s top priority after the coronavirus vaccination programme, according to these sources.
“Making sure children can read and write properly and have the skills they need to prosper is the prime minister’s central focus,” one source told the paper.
“We know coronavirus has wreaked enormous damage to people’s lives. We have to be honest about what happens next.”
At his Downing Street press conference on March 23, the prime minister said: “It’s the loss of learning for so many children and young people that’s the thing we’ve got to focus on now as a society.”
He expressed concern about those “unable properly to read or write as a result of Covid”.
