CHILDREN are breaking into school to do activities over the weekend.
That is according to Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle, who appeared on BBC Question Time last night.
The claim came as the Shadow Minister for Schools blasted the government over its allocation of "£50 per pupil" to help kids catch up after missed lessons due to coronavirus.
Mr Kyle told The Argus that a Sussex mum said their son wanted to use the school's facilities, so hopped over the fence with his friends.
"We need kids walking through the school gates, not over the fence," he said.
Mr Kyle told the BBC Question Time audience: "What does that say about Britain right now that we have students breaking into school because they want to be in school so much and the barrier is the government stopping them.
"We don't have a government that is matching the ambition that young people have for themselves right now."
The Department for Education (DfE) announced an additional £1.4 billion of funding to help pupils make up for lost learning following months of school closures.
But education unions have described the £1.4 billion funding package as “hugely disappointing” and a “damp squib”, with one school leaders’ union boss warning that the announcement “lets down the nation’s children”.
The education recovery commissioner then resigned in a row over the government’s catch-up fund.
Sir Kevan Collins quit after just four months in the role as "catch-up tsar" after warned the government’s package “falls far short of what is needed” to meet the scale of the challenge.
Panelist Lucy Frazer MP, Conservative Solicitor General for England and Wales, responded: "I think children have has a really, really rough time and it absolutely right the government stands behind them and supports them.
"[The £1.4b] is going to be really important catch-up money is going towards is 1 to 1 tuition - 100 million hours.
"It's going to teachers, to give teachers additional training, it's going to early years - all things that Kevan Collins set out."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel