PUPILS experienced substantial disruption to their education during the pandemic, a new report into the government’s handling of Covid-19 has found.

The Covid Social Mobility and Opportunities (Cosmo) study, released today, also found greater disruption on average for young people from more deprived backgrounds.
 
There were “substantial gaps” between private and state secondary schools in the “intensity” of online learning during the first lockdown, the study said.

The private sector was also found to have adapted more quickly,  with 96 per cent of private school students getting live online lessons in the first lockdown compared to 65 per cent of state school pupils.
 
More than half (53 per cent) of pupils who did not have a device well suited for remote learning at the start of the pandemic still did not have one by the end.

Thirty-six per cent of students said that they fell behind their peers in their studies, the damning findings show.

The Cosmo study is researching how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected inequalities in life chances through impacts on education, wellbeing and career outcomes. 

It is a collaboration between the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, the Sutton Trust and the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies. 
 
The study also found that 60 per cent of young people who had made career plans before the pandemic had changed them as a result of it. 

Those from less wealthy backgrounds were found to have been more likely to change their plans. 
 
One briefing about the findings called for “greater investment in catch-up activities for young people affected by the pandemic.”

National Education Union joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: “The findings in this report lay bare the inadequacy of the government’s response to the pandemic.

“Whether it was the slow roll-out of laptops or the failure to heed warnings on increased safety measures for schools.
 
“A decade of real-terms funding cuts made schools and pupils more vulnerable, undermining pupils’ educational opportunities — particularly in more disadvantaged areas.
 
“To compound this error, the Chancellor’s failure to meet the spending recommended for education recovery by Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s own recovery tsar, led both to his resignation and to severe corner-cutting. 

“This betrayed a clear lack of seriousness around government when it came to young people’s futures.”

The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.