Kate Green – 2021 Comments on the National Educational Union’s Report

The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 7 April 2021.

The Government’s chaotic response to this pandemic has exposed inequalities which have been holding children back during a decade of failed Conservative governments.

Even before the pandemic, the Conservatives oversaw rising poverty rates, with thousands more children arriving at school too hungry to learn and missing out on the creative opportunities we want all children to be able to enjoy. Now they have committed just 43p per child per day to help them recover from the pandemic and delivered a stealth cut to funding to help children on free school meals reach their potential.

Labour, parents and teachers are calling on the Government to prioritise delivering a world class education for every child, with valued staff supporting them to recover learning and delivering activities that promote wellbeing, rather than half-baked ideas about the length of the school day or term dates.