CUTTING the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) will create a “ticking timebomb” for social mobility amid a widening pupil attainment gap, teaching experts will warn today.

The Sutton Trust and National Education Union (NEU) have urged ministers not to axe the subsidy in next month’s Spring Budget.

Their warnings come after disparities between those accepted into university grew to levels last seen a decade ago in the first year since the return to pre-pandemic marking last summer.

The government’s NTP initiative has helped pupils catch up on the lost learning of the pandemic but will reportedly come to an end this summer.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Our current school system works against disadvantaged students in almost every way.

“Teacher shortages, unfair funding arrangements and an inappropriate curriculum have created a deepening crisis.

“The government has always failed to recognise the impact of Covid.

“Cutting the NTP would be a final abandonment of those communities and children most deeply affected by the pandemic.

“The consequences of such a decision would be felt for generations.”

Sutton Trust said that the next government must set out a long-term national strategy to close the attainment gap between rich and poor students.

Reforms to the National Funding Formula in 2018 are largely responsible for a roughly 10 per cent drop in per pupil spending in deprived areas compared with least deprived, the think tank said.

It called for funding to be rebalanced towards schools serving the most disadvantaged communities along with the Pupil Premium funding targeted at disadvantaged students to be restored to at least 2014/15, reversing the erosion caused by inflation.

The trust is also calling for a renewed focus on tutoring by the next government, in which the NTP could “play a significant role” in closing the attainment gap.