Letters: A much-needed shakeup for education
[Re: Covid fuels deepening education inequalities in UK, March 11]
The Education Select Committee’s findings that the pandemic has fuelled education equalities in England brings to light the serious impact of learning loss for young people.
Findings also show that Yorkshire and the Humber and the North-East are the worst affected areas with the average student in London losing 0.9 months of learning during the pandemic versus 5.3 months for students in Yorkshire and the Humber.
These regional differences are shocking and will serve to deepen the social mobility divide if not tackled. Children have not only suffered immense academic learning loss but also socially with skills such as collaborating, confidence and public speaking damaged.
Addressing barriers to social mobility for young people needs to be front of mind. Key to this is providing consistent access to opportunity, and one way of doing this is to embed applied learning across the curriculum.
If we want to get catch-up programmes right, we need to ensure learning loss not only includes subjects on the curriculum but social and transferable skills, as well as community engagement.
We don’t only want to focus on young people catching up on the past but also being fully prepared for the future.
Sharon Davies