More than 5600 tutors hired to help struggling Victorian students

Pupils who fell behind during lockdown are unable to count to 20 or recite the alphabet, with an army of tutors employed to help.

More than 5600 tutors have been hired to help bring kids back up to speed after lockdowns. Picture: David Geraghty

Victorian kids as old as seven have started the school year without knowing the alphabet or being able to count to 20 after a tumultuous lost academic year due to coronavirus lockdowns.

Melton West Primary School teacher Nicole Douglas, who is working as a tutor at the school, said pupils fell behind during lockdown as some parents were unable to support them with remote learning.

“We’ve got quite a number of grade 1 students who can’t count to 20, so we’re doing a whole class intervention with something called counting communities,” Ms Douglas said.

“A lot of our grade 1 students were quite far behind (when they started school this year),” she said.

Some “didn’t know any letters”, Ms Douglas said.

“They weren’t on a reading level and couldn’t recognise words.”

It comes as the Herald Sun can reveal more than 5600 tutors have been employed to help bring children up to speed after lockdowns last year as part of a $250m state government support package.

Narre Warren South P-12 College in Melbourne’s southeast received the biggest cash boost — $1.1m — to employ 35 tutors to help children who have slipped behind.

It was followed by Greater Shepparton Secondary College, Copperfield College in Sydenham and Northern Bay College P-12 College at Corio, which all received more than $1m to employ extra tutors.

Mount Ridley P-12 College in Craigieburn received $992,368 for 19 tutors, while Keysborough Secondary College received $851,660 for 11 tutors. Every school received at least $15,000.

More than 200,000 Victorian students lost up to 21 weeks of face-to-face learning in classrooms due to lockdowns last year.

Ms Douglas said students undertook a series of literacy and numeracy tests in term four to determine the areas they had fallen behind in.

“We’ve used a lot of the data from our Letter ID and High Frequency word tests, which prep teachers gathered at the end of last year to form our tutoring groups and figure out what they need,” she said.

Students had struggled with basic mathematics during lockdown.

“Based on the maths data that prep teachers gathered last year, we’ve used this to figure out where the kids are at and what they need next,” Ms Douglas said. “There was quite a bit of misconception with how the parents might have relayed certain letters, so there was a lot of correction needed with some kids.

“With prep it’s a lot of hands-on activities, including singing and play and obviously it’s hard to do that during remote learning.”

She said preps should learn the alphabet in their first year of school.

Tutor Nicole Douglas with Melton West Primary students, Nyaluak Ngong, Hercule Gadsden and Connor McCartney. Picture: David Geraghty

Additional money for tutoring was given to schools based on the number of enrolments and how many socially disadvantaged students attended the school.

The tutors are providing teaching that focuses on literacy and numeracy.

Some Victorian schools also dipped into their own money to hire extra tutors.

The Victorian schools that employed the most tutors include Hazel Glen College in Doreen with 37, Manor Lakes College in Wyndham Vale (35), Balwyn High (34) and Copperfield College and Kings Park Junior Campus (32).

Education Minister James Merlino said 2020 was a year like no other.

“While we know some students thrived during remote learning, we also know some struggled,” Mr Merlino said.

“This year, we’re using our educators’ skills to help students catch up in the classroom.

“Exceeding our initial target shows the dedication of our educators and means every child in every school across Victoria will be given the support they need to succeed at school and ensure no student is left behind.”