Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative
1531. Jacob Kelly
Jacob Kelly, from Surrey, set up the ‘Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative’, which has seen over 4,000 volunteer university students provide more than 25,000 hours of free, online 1:1 tutoring for school pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds across the UK since the start of the pandemic.
Jacob, a third year student at the University of Oxford, launched the initiative at the start of lockdown in March 2020 to help ensure students would not miss out on education opportunities as a result of school closures, particularly for pupils at Key Stage 3, GCSE and A-Level. Through partnerships with ‘Bramble’, an online classroom, and ‘Project Access’, a charity that helps students from less privileged backgrounds apply to leading universities via mentorship programmes, the ‘Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative’ is supporting more than 2,000 students with tutoring in a range of subjects, all provided by volunteers based at universities across the UK.
In a personal letter to Jacob, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I was so inspired to hear about the ‘Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative’ and how you have coupled thousands of university students with school children from disadvantaged backgrounds to offer extra tutoring since the start of the pandemic.
“It is a wonderfully practical way to help young people and I am delighted that your work continues.”
Jacob said:
“I’m delighted that the work done by myself and an amazing group of volunteers from across the UK has been recognised by the Prime Minister. It’s been a privilege to be able to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to maintain a passion for learning, even in the midst of a pandemic.”