Getting Tutoring Right

Way back during lockdown 1, when we worried about the impact this was having on kids in school, the government produced the National Tutoring Project. The idea was that sessions with tutors would help kids catch up, but there were two stipulations: the tutoring had to be 1:1, and it couldn’t be done by schools themselves - only the private sector could produce real quality.

So, just like PPE, the government invite bids, to see who can do the job. the ceiling is £62 million. Amazingly, a charity emerges, EEF, which makes a really good stab at it. They recruit good tutors, train them, and they’re able to work together with staff, and therefore with kids. some of what they do is groupwork. Within a year, they’ve exceeded their targets, and they’re confident they can continue to improve..

But the government have other ideas. They’re licking their lips at a bid from multinational Ranstadt, who reckon to do the job for £25 million (That’s right. Less than half what they expected to pay.) Of course, they bite their hand off, ditch EEF, and it’s all change. It’s also all downhill, because Ranstadt can’t recruit the tutors, appointments are made and not kept, and the whole thing falls apart. Ranstadt can’t put it right because they haven’t been paid enough.

And now Ranstadt have lost the contract, and the money will go instead to schools, who can decide how they’ll use it, and whether than will be 1:1 or groupwork, or a mixture. Which was always the right answer.