The Department of Education recently reported that children’s literacy rates hit their lowest levels since 2014, largely due to schooling being heavily disrupted during the pandemic. With children’s literacy rates declining by almost 10%, GCSE results in 2022 mirrored this downward trend, with 61.1% of students attaining a grade 5-pass, down 2.5 percentage points from the previous year. Now, with the cost-of-living crisis having knock-on effects on school budgets, the fears of worsening educational attainment are becoming a reality the UK must contend with. In an effort to bridge the learning deficit brought on by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, MyTutor, the UK’s leading online tutoring platform, invites student to join their free online tutoring sessions to get up to speed and bridge the gap.

Along with decreasing literacy rates, only 59% of primary school pupils in England are meeting the predicted average in reading and writing. Even more concerning, this past summer’s GCSE results revealed the widest grade gap between disadvantaged students and their peers in almost a decade in England. Figures from a landmark report from MyTutor show that 63% of working-class parents feel that since the pandemic, their child has fallen out of a routine with regards to their education and their motivation to work has declined. The Department for Education have also reported that on average, students from disadvantaged households received half a grade lower on results than their peers from more affluent homes. With schools already strapped for resource, experts fear that many more throughout UK schools falling into the disadvantaged as the cost-of-living soars, widening the gap even more.

On top of the attainment gap, GCSE grades on average were lower this year than expected across the board, as one third of students didn’t achieve a standard pass on their Maths and English exam this year. This has stoked concerns that a large proportion of all students across the UK are failing to achieve the basic skills they need to acquire most jobs outside of school – especially those in disadvantaged households. This highlights the fact that the need for more free learning resources has never been more prominent. As such, MyTutor – the UK’s most trusted tutoring platform – launches ‘MyTutor Squads’, offering all students free online tutoring classes throughout the autumn term.