LEADERSHIP+ The Professional Voice of Principals
COVID-19 and Irish primary schools DR. MERIKE DARMODY RESEARCH OFFICER AT THE ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ESRI) AND AN ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (TCD)
Countries around the world have undergone an unprecedented change in recent months due to the pandemic; a change that is likely to have a potentially far-reaching, long-term negative impact on children around the world. The situation is all the more serious as the recent school closures to curb the spread of the virus may not have been temporary but may occur again as we see new spikes in case numbers. International and Irish research reviewed in the ESRI report Implications of the Covid-19 Pandemic for Policy in Relation to Children and Young People: A Research Review, published in July this year, shows that for many young people, learning and social lives have been severely disrupted, while schools have had to provide distance-learning in order to provide continuity to pupils a short notice. COVID-19 AND THE WIDENING INEQUALITIES IN IRISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS Home as a site of schooling Virtually all students in Ireland missed face-to-face instruction due to COVID-19 for many months. While schools have made valiant efforts to continue the provision of learning for students, the success of those efforts has varied, and has often been hindered by limited access to technologies and high-speed broadband available in the homes of teachers and students. The changes have enforced existing social inequalities as not all families have had sufficient skills, resources, time or health to assist children with remote learning. Data from the Central Statistics Office gathered in August 2020, shows that more than four in ten (41%) respondents with children in primary school reported that enforced school closures had a ‘major’ or ‘moderate’ negative impact on their child’s learning, while 42 per cent reported a ‘major’ or ‘moderate’ negative impact on their child’s social development. There has been considerable concern about the 32
learning loss for some children. Data on the time primary school students spent on learning activities provided by their schools (CSO interactive tables) highlights considerable differences in learning time, compared to learning time during an ordinary school day. A quarter of parents of primary school students reported their child undertook learning activities, provided by their school, for one hour or less per day, on average, during the period of school closure, with a further 42 per cent reporting their child spent two hours per day on learning activities. Compared to second-level schools, digital platforms are not as common in primary schools, leaving parents, many of whom worked from home or were engaged in frontline duties, with the task of providing learning opportunities for their children. The COVID-19 crisis has also disrupted their everyday activities, including sport, leading to being physically distanced from friends and extended family members, and issues with mental health. Vulnerable groups Closing schools disrupted the education of all children, but some will have coped better than others. Children are differentially advantaged, reflecting their background and circumstances. In line with international evidence, Irish children from disadvantaged families, and those with SEN, have been most vulnerable and will have the greatest challenges in re-engaging with school and learning. There is a higher concentration of these students in DEIS schools. The curtailment of support services during the restrictions has represented an additional challenge to many vulnerable families. Very little information exists to date on how ethnic minority and minority language students have weathered the storm. Future challenges When students, educators, and administrators returned to school
after the COVID-19 closures, classrooms had become a changed landscape, one marked by larger equity gaps, substantial learning loss for many children, continued rules and regulations regarding social distancing, and an ongoing economic struggle for the most disadvantaged families, while we are learning to live with COVID. Many principals and teachers (often home-schooling their own children) have continued supporting online learning for their students, which is likely to have added substantially to their workload as many have needed to adopt a different skillset needed in utilising the technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus what evidence is used to guide our responses to the current challenge. Now, more than ever, valid empirical evidence based on representative survey data is needed to guide curriculum and instruction to support students and to determine where to focus resources. The available evidence indicates that policy interventions need to address the growing inequality evident over the period of restrictions. Additional resources need to be put in place for vulnerable groups, some of whom had struggled in school before the closure, and may not have re-engaged in fulltime education after the long period of school closures. Individual and small group tuition is likely to be most efficient in supporting these students. However, it is unclear whether schools have had the resources to provide such supports to help students catch up with learning. Increased expenditure should be set against the societal costs of early school-leaving and academic underperformance and the resulting impact on the future lifechances of children. If you would like to contact Merike in relation to this article, you can email her at merike.darmody@esri.ie LINK
