The National Tutoring Programme is a UK Government scheme announced in June 2020[1] and launched in November that year[2] forming part of a £1.7 billion catch-up fund to try to address learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[5] Richard Adams, education editor of The Guardian, has argued that the scheme would be more effective if the schools received the money directly.
[1] It was revealed in March 2021 that one of the providers, Third Space Learning (TSL), used Sri Lankan undergraduates as tutors, whose minimum age requirement was 17.
[2] TSL had claimed that its tutors were all STEM graduates, but its recruitment process required applicants to be "skilled in maths and English" and to pass an online test.
[2][8] In response to the revelations, TSL clarified that all tutors were graduates or undergraduates, with credentials required as part of the recruitment process.
[11] Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said:[2] [T]here’s a question about whether it's ethical to be paying £1.57 to £3.07 an hour, outsourcing in this way.
It also raises a bigger issue about why this money is being paid to the private sector whose objective in life must be to make a profit.A spokesperson for the National Tutoring Programme said:[11] Third Space Learning is an example of a provider with an innovative approach and is proving popular with English schools.
[4] The scheme has reached 100% of its target number of schools enrolled in the South-West and 96.1% in the South-East, compared to 59.3% in the North-West, 58.8% in the North-East, and 58.9% in Yorkshire and the Humber.