Sir Kevan Collins says he was ‘very disappointed’ he had to resign as education recovery commissioner

Sir Kevan Collins has spoken out about education recovery plans as he attended an Education Committee meeting on Tuesday (29 June), just weeks after he resigned as education recovery commissioner.

Sir Kevan said on Tuesday that he was “very disappointed” he had to resign from his position, but that the £1.4 billion support package “wasn’t enough” in order to deliver the recovery needed after the Covid pandemic.

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At a glance: 5 key points

- Sir Kevan Collins told the Committee he was “very disappointed” he had to resign but that the support package offered “just wasn’t enough to deliver the kind of recovery we need”

- Sir Kevan said he offered a range of different options, including proposals that got to the sum of £15 billion - but these were rejected by the Government

- The former education recovery commissioner said he was disappointed the most that his proposals of extending the school day by an extra 30 minutes were not taken up

- Sir Kevan also said he was “shocked” to find out that the Department of Education didn’t collect data regarding the average length of the school day

- He told the Committee that disadvantaged children will feel the biggest impact that Covid has had on education

Background

The former education recovery commissioner quit his role earlier this month after just four months in the role, saying the Covid recovery support package for education “does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge”.

The Department for Education (DfE) unveiled additional money to be used for tuition and teacher training, but it came under fire following suggestions that Sir Kevan called for 10 times as much to be invested.

At the time of this resignation, Sir Kevan said in a statement: “After the hardest of years, a comprehensive recovery plan – adequately funded and sustained over multiple years – would rebuild a stronger and fairer system.

“A half-hearted approach risks failing hundreds of thousands of pupils. The support announced by Government so far does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge and is why I have no option but to resign from my post.”