Some pupils are facing a "lost decade" of progress in schools in England if action is not taken, MPs have warned.
Their report expressed alarm that it could take 10 years for the gap between disadvantaged children and others to narrow to what it was before Covid.
It urged the government to take faster and more effective action, such as improving uptake of a tutoring scheme designed to help students catch up.
The government said it had made £5bn available for education recovery.
About 13% of schools in England did not take part in the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) in 2021-22. It was set up in November 2020 to help children catch up after Covid lockdowns disrupted education.
The NTP provides primary and secondary schools with funding to subsidise tutoring, including one-to-one and group lessons.
The Department for Education (DfE) initially subsidised 75% of the costs which schools incurred for delivering the NTP, but this reduced to 60% this year and will go down to 50% next year.
