The program comes following reports based on assessments conducted in the second half of 2020 which revealed an steep incline of students fallen behind in different subjects as a result of COVID-19.

The program will enable tutoring for small groups of disadvantaged students whose learning has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those students will need to be 'accurately identified' by their teachers.

School education specialists at the Grattan Institute, Julie Sonnemann and Jordana Hunter said teachers 'will need to make judgments using a range of assessments, including student tests, classroom observations or student interviews.'

While most of the $337 million provided by the NSW Government will go to government schools, about $31 million will be allocated to non-government schools with the greatest levels of need.

This means about 252 Catholic systemic schools (or 45 percent of Catholic systemic schools in NSW) will receive about $20 million between them. To be eligible, a school needs to have more than 15 percent of its students in the lowest socioeconomic quartile.

"The IEU supports this program and would like to see more detail to ensure the funding goes where it is intended - strong support for disadvantaged students," Northam said.

The funding is available throughout the 2021 school year to support tutoring of groups of up to five and is available for both primary and secondary schools.

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