2.3 Million British Children have done ‘Little to No School Work’ during Lockdown

A new report published by the UCL Institute of Education has found that around 2.3 million children in the UK have done a negligible amount of schoolwork since lockdown began in March.

The report reveals that an average of 2.5 hours was spent doing schoolwork each day, which is half the amount previous research indicated, saying that “learning losses are much greater than feared”.

It also suggests that disadvantaged pupils are falling further behind their peers, with just 11% of kids receiving free school means spending 4+ hours on schoolwork. This compares with 19% of kids not from low income backgrounds who are not eligible for free school meals.

Researchers showed that almost a third of privately funded schools provided at least four online classes each day, compared with 6% of state schools.