Nearly two-thirds of heads lack confidence in flagship tutoring programme

The tutoring programme is ‘failing on all measures’, says a social mobility expert.

Nearly two-thirds of school leaders say they either lack confidence in the Government’s flagship tutoring scheme (PA) (PA Archive)

Nearly two-thirds of school leaders say they lack confidence in the Government’s flagship tutoring scheme or are unsure about its ability to deliver positive impacts for their pupils over the long term.

In a survey of over 1,000 headteachers by the NAHT school leaders’ union, most of whom were based in primary schools, 65% reported that they were not very confident, not at all confident or did not know whether the National Tutoring Programme would have a good impact on pupils in their school over the long term.

Just a quarter – 25% – of respondents said they definitely planned to continue using the programme beyond this academic year.

Nearly half – 48% – said this was because of the bureaucracy of the programme, while 58% said the lower Government subsidy for the scheme next year would dissuade them from signing up again.

The NTP is currently failing on all measures - take up of tutoring, quality of tutoring and targeting of tutoring to the most disadvantaged pupils

Professor Lee Elliot Major, University of Exeter

The National Tutoring Programme – a key pillar of the Government’s aims to provide education recovery for pupils’ lost learning during the pandemic – has been dogged by reports that its online platform is bureaucratic and difficult to use.

Robert Halfon chair of the Commons’ Education Select Committee has suggested that the Government break its contract with Randstad, the Dutch company contracted to run the scheme.

Mr Halfon drew attention to the fact that just 8% of the tutoring sessions for this year have begun out of a target of 524,000.

Professor Lee Elliot Major, social mobility professor at the University of Exeter who originally proposed the scheme to the Government, said that it was now “not clear” whether the programme had helped the pupils most affected by the pandemic to catch up.

“The NTP is currently failing on all measures – take up of tutoring, quality of tutoring and targeting of tutoring to the most disadvantaged pupils,” he told the PA news agency.

“The ultimate measure of success will be whether this programme has helped improve the progress of pupils who lost so much learning over the pandemic – it’s now not clear whether we will ever know this – which has to be a central question for any public inquiry.”

Prof Elliot Major added that one of his “major concerns is how well targeted the programme has been to help those pupils most in need of support”.

He said that a rival bid to take over the contract from Randstad at the point of renewal had been put together, and that this was being “seriously considered” by ministers.

Over 300,000 courses were delivered in the last term alone and the programme remains on track to deliver the ambitious target of teaching two million courses this academic year

Department for Education spokesperson

Exeter University is now running a pilot whereby undergraduates could take an academic module to train as tutors and earn a credit for their degrees by doing so.

“We’ve spoken with heads of multiple academy trusts and they are very enthusiastic – they would be able to integrate these tutors into their own efforts to improve learning in the classrooms,” Prof Elliot Major said.

“This is a more systematic and sustainable model of tutoring that could really help social mobility in the long run. It was always part of our original proposal two years ago when the pandemic first happened.

“The Office for Students see this as a model that can be used by other universities to meet the new requirements to help improve school attainment.”

Just over a third – 35% – of respondents to the NAHT survey said that they had used the NTP, while 38% said that they had no plans to, and 27% said they hoped to use the scheme in future.

Of those who had not used the scheme this year, 40% said the bureaucracy associated with the programme had put them off, while 39% said they did not feel it was right for their pupils.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are determined to support children from all backgrounds to catch up on lost learning and reach their potential.

“Over 300,000 courses were delivered in the last term alone and the programme remains on track to deliver the ambitious target of teaching two million courses this academic year.

“High quality tuition is key to delivering the programme and there are a range of measures to ensure all tutoring partners involved in the programme meet the set standards.”