Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 20 March 2026

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

Among the headlines this week, new research suggested families need to spend more time with their kids, the government launched a New Deal for young people, and the Chancellor said fixing student loans was not her top priority at present.

Here’s some details starting with that research on families needing to spend more time with their kids.

The research came from the National Literacy Trust and highlighted what it called, ‘a sustained decline in families engaging in activities with their children to support early years literacy development.’

70%+ of those surveyed still chat daily with their children but even that’s down 10% on last year. Time, cost, availability to activities are all part of the problem.

It follows a report last year from GL Assessment which reached a similar conclusion. “Teachers believe the decline in conversation at home, more time spent on social media and streaming videos, and less time spent reading outside of school are to blame,” the report indicated.

Social media creep is becoming an important aspect in the current debate around limiting such use and was highlighted in a reported survey from the TES this week.

In other news for schools, teacher recruitment and retention has improved according to NFER’s latest market report on the school teacher workforce but a better pay offer than the proposed 6.5% over three years is needed to maintain momentum.

ASCL put things into perspective. “While it is great to see this improving picture on teacher recruitment and retention, it won’t feel like that on the ground in our schools and colleges because teacher shortages have been so dire for so long.”

FFT Education Datalab reported that low attainment at KS2 tended to lead to lower outcomes at KS4 and beyond.

“It does not automatically follow that pupils with low attainment in reading at Key Stage 2 will have poor outcomes by the end of secondary school. However, the higher your Key Stage 2 results the better your chances of good outcomes.”

And Ofqual published its latest annual report on the regulated qualification market covering 2024/25.

Lots of useful data for those that need it.

Just under 12m qualification certificates issued last year, 254 regulated awarding organisations, AS numbers down, the slight dip in GCSE certificates issued down to changing demographics, maths and psychology the top certificated A level subjects, English Language and maths at GCSE, Health, public services and care leading the increased number of vocational certificates issued.

On to FE where the government presented its latest package to help tackle youth unemployment and NEETs.

The context, which has been sharpening for some time, is apprenticeship starts down, NEET numbers up, and growing concerns about a lost generation. One in eight young people not earning or learning as the Work Foundation reminded us.

The Secretary of State was keen to highlight the opening up of opportunities that the government’s measures, such as a widened Youth Guarantee, government funds for employers to take on more young people, and funds and apprenticeships targeted at young people, are intended to bring.

“These measures will give life-changing opportunities to young people and significantly reverse the increase we inherited in those not in education, employment or training.” ‘An explicitly pro young people package,’ as he went on to say.

The package was broadly welcomed as these things generally are, particularly if some funding – a billion in this case – is attached.

The Youth Futures Foundation said it was ‘a significant step forward’ but needed to be built on. In a similar vein the Resolution Foundation welcomed the announcement but added that the government needed “to watch trends in youth unemployment closely to determine whether they are enough or whether more support is needed.” The HR body, CIPD, agreed, adding that an apprenticeship guarantee would help.

Former Conservative Minister David Willetts called the government’s package ‘sensible’ but concluded that “actually delivering these programmes will be quite a challenge.”

Four points to note.

First, that while many welcomed the announcement, there was clearly frustration in some quarters about a failure to invest in providers and young people up to now.

In the words of the AoC’s David Hughes, ‘we welcome any new investment in supporting young people’ but “funding decisions made in the last few weeks mean the government is failing to invest in colleges who could do so much more to actually prevent young people from becoming NEET in the first place.”

A reminder that investment shouldn’t be a once-off but spread over time.

Second, and a follow-on, yes, plenty of initiatives both now and over recent years but is there an overall strategy?

The former Chair of the National Careers Council put it succinctly in her response.

“What is missing from yesterday’s announcement, welcome as it is, is a coherent, cross-departmental careers action plan that treats the system as a whole rather than a collection of parallel initiatives.”

Others echoed the sentiment.

Here, for instance, is the AELP. “The scale of employer incentives announced today reflects wider pressures in the system and underlines the need for a longer-term strategy for apprenticeships and workforce development.”

Perhaps the forthcoming Milburn NEETS Review will join up the dots. Its promised radical recommendations.

Third as Youth Employment UK indicated, while the incentives in the package are welcome, it’s the barriers that many young people face that so often trip up intentions.

Mentoring, guidance, transition to work, mental health support, transport costs, local services generally, all are factors for young people in different ways and can either block or ease the passage through.

Not just a government but a shared responsibility.

And fourth, as skills expert Mark Corney highlighted, ‘success will be defined as jobs outcomes’ but will those jobs be there?

The coming months will see as he indicated, changes to the Employment Rights Act and the alignment of the National Minimum Wage with the National Living Wage for 18-20 yr olds. Each of which could add pressures on employers.

In addition the impact of AI on the jobs market remains an elephant in the room as of course does the current global crisis which is already rewriting economic forecasts.

As the IfS pointed out in its summary of the proposals, “in practice, these policies are likely to only directly benefit a small percentage of the almost 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds who are NEET.”

As it went on to illustrate “the Jobs Guarantee to support an average of 30,000 people a year over the next three years, is a fraction of the 72,000 UC claimants who are eligible for the policy today.”

Other headlines in a busy week for FE and listed below include the workforce, cyber security and numeracy

Finally on to HE where student politics has been in the frame with two reports on the HEPI website.

In one it was argued that universities need to think about how best to connect with the changing political spectrum including notably the emergence of populist parties which may be less supportive of them.

“Universities have fallen into a complex, dull and defensive public debate, focused on economic contributions and graduate earnings. The risk is that this looks selfish, tone-deaf and insular at a moment of peril.”

In the other, it was reported that many students were disengaging from politics altogether and a general election tomorrow would see many vote Reform.

And still on politics, this week’s perspective on the student loans debate came from the Chancellor who was asked about it at a presentation this week.

She acknowledged that the loan system was ‘broken’ but went on to say firmly “what is more broken is the fact that we’ve got more than not in education, employment or training.”

The suggestion being that we need to fix other things first.

Links to most of these stories below, starting with the week’s headlines.

The top headlines of the week:

• ’UK government to launch £1bn plan to tackle youth employment’ (Monday)
• ‘Explosive meningitis outbreak is unprecedented, officials say’ (Tuesday)
• ‘Teachers worried about impact of screen time on reading’ (Wednesday)
• ‘6.5% teacher pay rise risks reversing recruitment gains’ (Thursday)
• ‘Disadvantaged schools more likely to be graded down on achievement’ (Friday)

General:

• Chancellor’s presentation. Rachel Reeves expanded on her concept of ‘Securonomics’ as she delivered the Mais lecture, outlining how, despite the current difficult global context, she intended to pursue economic growth by focusing on building a closer economic relationship with the EU, supercharging AI and unlocking regional growth.
• Quantum steps. The government pledged funding to build large scale Quantum computers in the UK by 2030, promising up to £2bn to help position the UK as a lead player in such technology which it argued ‘would revolutionise the health and welfare of people across the UK.’
• Low Pay. The government issued its 2026 remit to the Low Pay Commission calling on it to take into account the need to support employment prospects for young people along with government plans to remove discriminatory age bands and align the National Minimum Wage for 18-20 yr olds with the National Living Wage.
• Media Literacy. The government set out how it planned to strengthen media literacy over the next three years under its Media Literacy Action Plan, focusing on four priorities including building awareness and digital skills, preparing future generations, boosting local programmes and developing a coherent model.
• AI. Pearson outlined the concept of the ‘augmented knowledge worker’ in a new report on the potential of AI, setting out a model of learning which it described as DEEP (Diagnose, Embed, Evaluate, Prioritise) to help embed the necessary skills for such workers to flourish.
• AI at work. The British Chambers of Commerce published new research looking into AI in the workplace, finding over half of firms now actively using it, albeit with no impact on headcount, but with adoption uneven across businesses, and with recommendations for more skills training and monitoring.
• Childcare. The children’s charity Coram published its latest annual report into childcare provision, acknowledging the positive impact of the government’s funded childcare policies especially for working families but indicating that gaps still remain in provision for SEND children and for those without access to the funded entitlements.
• Vulnerable children. The Centre for Young Lives announced the creation of a new Vulnerability Index that will bring together enhanced data on the scale and nature of risks facing children and young people, in turn creating a new Early Intervention Evidence Policy and Impact Centre.
• Screentime. The Education Policy Institute published evidence on screentime for 9-month-old babies from its Children of the 2020’s cohort study, showing that three-quarters (72%) experience at least some screentime while 28% don’t watch any, with the most negative impact tending to occur when screentime hits two hours or more a day.
• World Book Capital. UNESCO designated Medellín, Columbia, which has seen a 542% rise in bookstores over the past seven decades, as its World Book Capital for 2027.

HE:

• Using AI in applications. Jo Richards, Insight Lead at UCAS, reported in a blog on the Wonkhe site on their recent survey looking into how those applying to university were using AI, finding most using it to support their research into different types of course and institution, supplementing rather than replacing traditional sources of information and guidance. 
• The student vote. The PLMR Group reported on its latest polling of student voting intentions 20 months or so on from the last general election, concluding that many students were opting out altogether worried particularly by the cost of living and that if there were to be a general election tomorrow Reform would secure the most votes.
• Universities and populism. Two leading experts called in a report on the HEPI website for the HE sector to refresh its image with the wider populace, including the new populist parties which may be less favourable to them, offering a new three-part framework to enable this to happen.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “Geography lessons at school really overestimated the importance of correctly identifying an oxbow lake” -@MrBonMot.
• “I try to have a short walk around the block each lunchtime. Every time I do, I see groups of secondary school pupils playing on the swings, roundabout, and seesaw in the playground by our school. It reminds me that they're still kids. We forget about this too often in education” -@MrHtheteacher.
• “High text; low tech. In reading, that's the first step” -@Doug_Lemov.
• “Over the decades, I've interviewed thousands of kids for admissions. When a kid or parent says, "they read for hours every day," my immediate thought is: no problem here. Maybe some math to catch up on, but the foundation is there. Readers have both literacy and cognitive skills” -@flowidealism.
• “The one ultimately positive effect AI will have on education is that we won’t be able to fudge and obfuscate any longer. Unless we accept the goal of education is the pursuit of knowledge then we will be in a bind because AI is a viable alternative for pretty much *anything* else” - @greg_ashman.
• “Don’t adopt AI for its own sake; look at where it will help your college solve problems, reduce workload and improve customer service,” says Carol Thomas, Principal and CEO of Coventry College in our latest blog” -@AoC.
• “All of us who return from maternity leave seem to be wrestling with the same impossible standards: trying to work as if we don’t have children and trying to parent like we don’t have a career" -@jon_severs.
• “Every time you check your pockets for your wallet, keys, and phone, you do 25% of the Macarena” -@BigBearF1.

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “I can tell you today that I have asked my officials to work with mayors and businesses, to develop a roadmap for future fiscal devolution, to be published at this year’s Budget” – the Chancellor points to future devolution in her Mais lecture.
• “We are determined to tackle the rise in youth unemployment by expanding practical routes into work, boosting apprenticeships, and giving employers the clarity they need” – the PM on the new package to help tackle youth unemployment.
• “Ultimately, colleges could help tens of thousands more NEET young people if they were given full funding for every student they enrol. It is not much to ask for: simply fund every NEET young person who enrols in a college to study the skills the labour market is crying out for” – the AoC responds to the government’s package to help tackle youth unemployment.
• “Is it in front of the queue? No, it’s not” – the Chancellor responds to a question about the contentious student loan system.
• “Today is an historic day, marking a turning point for 450,000 children across Britain” – the government heralds the formal removal of the two-child limit as the Bill becomes law.

Everything else you need to know ...

What to look out for in the next couple of weeks: