This week's MP's column comes from Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West

THERE’s no denying that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the education system, from Early Years up to Higher Education. 

It is also undeniable that successive Conservative governments have critically underfunded and undervalued our education system as a matter of deliberate policy. 
The reality at the start of the pandemic was that, per-pupil spending in England had fallen by nine per cent in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20, representing the most extensive cuts in over 40 years.

Similarly, the Children’s Commissioner highlighted that before the pandemic disadvantaged children were 18 months behind their wealthier peers in their learning. 

It is clear to me that the lack of investment in our education system has made it vulnerable and less reactive to the challenges presented by Covid-19. 

Nevertheless, teachers and staff across the education system have worked tirelessly to keep learning on-going but schooling the Government on education policy and its funding objectives should not be on their to-do list. 

Since the start of the pandemic, teachers, parents and pupils have called on the Government to have a Plan B for learning and exams, to provide additional funding to institutions across the education system, to provide mass testing to ensure safe learning spaces and to protect the livelihoods of teachers and supply staff. 

Yet three lockdowns and two national school closures later, the Government keeps on failing to deliver on education. Once again, pupils and schools find themselves in precisely the same situation, as they were nearly a year ago. I have been contacted by pupils and parents worried about the lack of clarity provided to them on exam results for A-Level, GCSE and Vocational Qualifications. 

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that grades will be decided by teacher assessments, but the system which will be used to determine the results is pending a two-week consultation, which went live on January 15, 2021. 

This consultation comes at a time when the Government repeatedly ignored calls from teachers and their respective institutions imploring them to rethink exams for 2021 in view of the learning lost in 2020; continued disruption caused to learning due to local outbreaks and the confusion caused by the DfE algorithm last year.

It is not good enough that a couple of months before pupils were due to sit the exams, that the Government decided to cancel exams for A- Level and GCSE qualifications, whilst leaving some pupils to decide whether or not to sit their BTEC and vocational exams. 

Similarly, last year Ofcom had suggested that, up to 1.7 million children in the UK do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home and once again the Government has been slow to react. 

An 18-month learning gap existed between disadvantaged children and their wealthier peers before the pandemic. The move to online learning has left many children digitally disconnected and has widened the pre-existing learning gap. Whilst the Government has announced its ‘Get Help with Technology’ programme, I have been informed by Bradford College that 16-19-year-old pupils will gain access to support with devices and connectivity during the 2021 spring term, but this may come a little too late. 

It is shocking that Bradford College, one of the biggest education and training providers in the region, with around 20,000 students studying their A-Level, vocational, apprenticeship and degree qualifications, will need to wait for an invite from DfE to access support.  

Throughout the pandemic, the Government has made a catalogue of U-turns and failures on the education system.

The failure to provide a Plan B on exams and learning, the lack of resources and funding provided to education providers will all be the defining legacy of this Government.

I pay tribute to the hard work of teachers, pupils and parents who have not failed our pupils and have kept learning on-going despite the inaction of this Government. But we must no longer accept this failed legacy to continue.

It is indeed ironic that the Conservative Party, which pitches itself as the party of aspiration, just so happens to be the party which has dashed the aspirations of an entire generation of pupils.

Throughout the pandemic, a certain Premier League footballer has shown more leadership, care and vision towards students than the Secretary of State for Education. Therefore, it is time for the Secretary of State for Education to step down and end this fiasco immediately.