Will the Government Fund Private Tuition for Children in Northern Ireland?
Studyseed CIC • Jun 19, 2020
Government private tuition scheme targeting disadvantaged communities in England should extend to the 100,000 children living in poverty in Northern Ireland
This week the Guardian drew attention to government plans to fund a national tutoring programme aimed at helping pupils in England to catch up on missed learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. An announcement is expected to be made by the government later this week regarding the scheme, which is set to run into millions of pounds in spending.
Due to the school closures, millions of children across the UK and Ireland have missed out on essential learning that only a face-to-face teaching experience within the classroom can provide. The primary aim of the private tuition scheme is to reach children from disadvantaged communities who will suffer the most from the lack of access to their classroom setting.
Is the government scheme for private tuition being extended to Northern Ireland?
This is the key question that schools and parents across Northern Ireland will be keen to see answered in the official announcement. The latest report on child poverty figures for Northern Ireland set out that 82,000 children live in absolute poverty - that is almost one in every five children - while just under 100,000 children in Northern Ireland live in relative poverty.
The discrepancy that exists in the educational achievements of children living in poverty compared with children who are not is extreme. Over 50% of students who are entitled to free school meals are likely to leave school with less than five GCSEs. This is a significant proportion of the population of children in Northern Ireland who are likely to be disproportionately impacted upon by the school closures.
Many children of key workers in Northern Ireland have also been placed at a disadvantage with little to no additional educational support provided to them while their parent(s) are working to provide essential services. These children have had less opportunity to have face-to-face teaching provided to them at home and it is likely that many of them will have suffered in their home learning as a result.
What funding have we secured so far to support children with their home learning in Northern Ireland?
To date, we have received funding from Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland and the Charities Aid Foundation that has allowed us to open up a free online tuition service for children of key workers in Northern Ireland, children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and children with special educational needs. These funds are allowing us to provide immediate support to children who require home learning support through our ‘Ask a Tutor’ scheme. We have also been able to heavily discount our online tuition services for these students who require ongoing support.
However, this funding is a limited resource and we are only one educational support provider. This is the time for a coordinated approach between Northern Ireland educators, education support providers, tuition companies and private tutors to work together in supporting those children who are seeing their education suffer as a result of the school closures. Investment in this area will be necessary to help our children and young people to make up for their lost learning opportunities due to Covid-19 and we hope to see the government including Northern Ireland’s children in their educational support scheme.
Do you need support with home learning?
Our Ask a Tutor scheme is providing free tuition support online and we still have funded tuition sessions available for eligible students. If you need a tutor for maths, English or science at any level then please use our form to apply for an online session at:
Our tuition services are now online, so it doesn’t matter if you are in Belfast, Craigavon, Omagh or Coleraine - our tutors are available and ready to support you at this time.
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