Skills and education are the key to our recovery, Rishi Sunak should put our young people at the heart of his Budget statement - Mark Casci

The coronavirus crisis has seen us very much focused on the here and now as we battle with a public health emergency that has played havoc with our society and economy.

With the unbridled disruption to our lives, the intense pressure on our NHS and the hope that mass vaccination brings, our focus has very much been on today and tomorrow.

But, as our older and vulnerable loved ones are brought one step closer to safety as millions of jabs are rolled out across our nation, we must now begin to strategise about our future and how we mitigate and protect our nation from the ensuing damage that lies ahead from more than a year of closed businesses, delayed medical treatments and disrupted education.

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The Budget lies ahead at the start of March and myself and my colleagues will be publishing a great deal of journalism in the days running up to Rishi Sunak’s sophomore delivery as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Lockdown has taken a tollLockdown has taken a toll
Lockdown has taken a toll

But this week I wish to focus my attention on the matter of education, one which is of critical importance to our region and country. All indictors are that schools will be back to full attendance as of March 8 but simply reopening schools is not going to be enough to cope with what lies ahead.

This weekend we carried a landmark interview with the outgoing Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield which carried some startling interventions.

Otley-born Ms Longfield issued a stark warning that Yorkshire’s education system risks being left in turmoil for years to come and made an impassioned plea to Ministers to ensure that millions of pounds in funding are poured into the North’s schooling.

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While Yorkshire has so much to be proud of in both public and private life, the fact remains that some of the worst performing schools are located here and that thousands of the region’s children have far less access to opportunity.

Anne LongfieldAnne Longfield
Anne Longfield

Even prior to Covid and the hugely damaging closure of schools to millions of people, London’s school system has a scenario in which 60 per cent of pupils receiving free school meals are achieving the top six grades in their GCSE examinations. In Yorkshire it is between just 35 and 45 per cent and the pandemic is likely only to widen this gap owing to hundreds of days of lost schooling.

Ms Longfield was also deeply concerned about the impact on the social development of children as some of Yorkshire’s schools have witnessed among the highest levels of absenteeism during the coronavirus crisis. And of course this crisis is not merely confined to attainment and attendance.

The anxiety of lockdowns is unbearable for children. Much of a child’s developmental capability comes from interacting with people their own age. Depriving so many children of this basic social function has been a contributory factor in demand for counselling for loneliness provided by the Childline service having risen by 10 per cent since the pandemic started.

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This catastrophe’s impact will be felt more widely even than the children involved. For parents, many of whom will be employees or business owners, they will face the added difficulty of trying to mitigate the educational and emotional toll taken on their offspring.

Rishi Sunak is set to deliver his Budget on March 3.Rishi Sunak is set to deliver his Budget on March 3.
Rishi Sunak is set to deliver his Budget on March 3.

For the wider economy, there will be a generation of talent lost to our country. The ability of firms to attract the best talent will be diminished. Those young people who may have gone on to create and grow an innovative and powerful enterprise will be stifled.

When we disadvantage our children’s prospects and achievements we disadvantage us all.

If this seems unnecessarily gloomy let me be clear, there is a way out of this.

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The so-called London Challenge, rolled out at the start of the century to improve the fate of the capital’s pupils who were then ranked dead last when it came to attainment, was a success and its effects are still being seen to this day. Consider too the superb impact of the vaccination programme. The United Kingdom very much has precedent of achieving great things in its modern history.

Millions of children have missed months of schooling.Millions of children have missed months of schooling.
Millions of children have missed months of schooling.

When Mr Sunak stands up at the Dispatch Box on March 3 this challenge must be met with a powerful, ambitious and properly funded solution if we are to protect the futures of our children and our economy.

Anything less is a failure, and now is not the time for failure.