1m tutoring courses delivered to help pupils catch up: Zahawi

EDUCATION secretary Nadhim Zahawi on Friday (11) said one million courses have been started by children through the UK government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP).

The NTP supports schools by providing access to tutoring to help pupils whose education has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A little more than half of the courses - an estimated 532,000 - were provided through the School-Led Tutoring where 75 per cent of the cost is subsidised. This route provides funding directly to schools to source their own tutors.

Some 114,000 starts have been made on courses through Tuition Partners run by Dutch company Randstad. Under this pillar, 70 per cent subsidy is provided by the government.

An estimated 74,000 pupils have started packages through the Academic Mentor pillar of the programme in which 95 per cent of the cost is subsidised.

As School-Led Tutoring has become popular, the government said up to £65 million will be transferred into this route from the Academic Mentor and Tuition Partner pillars.

At a conference of the Association of School and College Leaders held in Birmingham, Zahawi said tutoring which used to be “the preserve of only a fortunate few” is now benefitting “all children who want it and need it”.

“I hope you will agree with me that what we are doing together on tutoring is an invaluable addition to our education system, and I am continuing to look at how we can make sure it is having as big an impact as possible.”

According to the education department, the tutoring programme remains on track to deliver two million courses overall this academic year to help children catch up.