Extending school day ‘right thing to do’, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said extending the school day is “the right thing to do” and the government is examining how extra hours could be used for additional tuition and activities.

In his strongest commitment yet to imposing the extra hours, the prime minister also criticised the work of the former education recovery chief, Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned after telling ministers that their catch-up schooling plans were not ambitious enough.

Collins was reported to have recommended spending about £15bn on education recovery, including extending the school day by 30 minutes. The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced initial spending of just £1.4bn, £1bn of which is to be spent on tutoring.

Government sources have hinted there is likely to be significant further cash for education catch-up at the autumn spending review, after a backlash over the limitations of the plans already announced.

Speaking to the education committee chair, Robert Halfon, Johnson said: “We’re looking at the evidence, and if I’m absolutely frank with you and the committee, to begin with some of the evidence that was assembled was not as good as it could have been.

“The evidence on lengthening the school day wasn’t as powerful as it was on tuition, for instance, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do. I do think it’s the right thing to do.

“Question is how you do it. What sorts of activities, enrichment; is it academic? What’s the mixture? As you rightly say, we’re doing a proper review of all of that to get the evidence that we want.”

Halfon said he was encouraged by the comments. “We need radical thinking and radical action to tackle the disaster which has befallen children in the last 18 months,” he told the Guardian. “If the government is seriously looking at a longer school day as the PM has suggested, that is encouraging.”

Teachers’ unions had warned that plans to extend schooling hours could backfire. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We know that quality of teaching is more important than quantity.

“It will be vital that these proposals are properly resourced and don’t become an unsustainable burden on schools, leaders and teachers. And there will be many questions about exactly what the expectation will be over the content of longer school days.”