VIEWS & OPINION


Education: the hidden casualty of COVID


Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation


In 2019 more than 262 million children and youth were out of school. Six out of ten were not acquiring basic literacy and numeracy after several years in school.


COVID has obviously made things a lot worse. Recently UNESCO puts those numbers at over 1.5


billion students and youth across the planet who are or have been affected by school and university closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


A quality education means different things in different places. At any time there are up to 4 million children out of school because they’re fleeing conflict, famine, climate change. For the poorest, access to education is a critical step in improving quality of life and access to all the other opportunities that are available. What Covid has taught us however is that while the world might have laudable goals in broadening access to education globally, we still have significant challenges at home.


With almost no warning, the right to education has become dependent on connectivity. Over three-quarters of national distance learning solutions available during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic relied exclusively on online platforms. Yet as many as 465 million children and youth, or almost 47 % of all primary and secondary do not have access to these platforms because they do not have internet connections at home.


Many families are realising the challenges involved in education as they are teaching their children from home: some children are without computers to access schoolwork, or sufficient mobile data to log on, or are sharing workspace with siblings and parents. One of the indicators used to gauge the effectiveness of an education system is how many children are in school – how do we do that now? It seems as if the only option is to focus on grades and completed work and yet many educators accept that this isn’t a fair way to gauge children’s progress under lockdown.


In the UK the debate about lockdown is centred about the damage that it does children to be out


of school – not ignoring the impact is has on their parents if they suddenly have to home school.


So basically, what we’re saying is the education is at once the most important tool for changing the


world, and yet at the moment our children are missing out on the experience of school and the ways in which they learn to build the social skills, empathy and resilience necessary to overcome a crisis of this nature.


A recent World Economic Forum report states that the workforce of 2022 will need higher order ‘human’ skills - creativity, originality, initiative, critical thinking, persuasion, negotiation, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving. There are huge opportunities here, to allow different pupils to learn in different ways. Connection means more than connectivity however, so we need to find new collaborative tools that fully engage pupils, stretch their imaginations, their management of complexity and their empathy.


If we’re going to be able to provide this,


we’re going to have to find new works of working with technology to deliver these skills. And that means embracing the change and encouraging educators to lead this evolution, not letting the technology dictate the process.


February 2021


The effect of lockdown and school closures on students with autism aged 16+


Comment by ANIA HILDREY, headteacher, Abbot’s Lea School, Liverpool


The current Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on society as a whole will have a knock-on effect for many years to come. My concern is for the students age 16+, who are nearing the end of their education within specialist settings.


As the headteacher of Abbot’s Lea School, South Liverpool, we are expected to be open to all students, as 100% of our population is classed as vulnerable by the current governmental guidance.


Despite our best efforts – both last school year and since September - this has simply not been possible, when concurrently, the health advice is for the staff with complex underlining health conditions is to shield and the frequent closures of Bubbles and Zones are necessary following positive diagnosis of coronavirus.


My school has a well subscribed post-16 provision with over 42 students. The biggest challenge we, and many other specialist schools with such provisions, have faced over the past 12 months is the interruption to onsite learning. At this time of year, we would be working tirelessly to prepare our students for transitioning to further education or the world of work, with clear plans in place for individuals’ onward transition.


The frequent closures of onsite provision have, instead, resulted in a blended approach of school-based and remote learning. These changes can be difficult and distressing to a student with autism, as they prepare to leave the safe haven of school.


A recent survey by the National Autistic Society reported that 7 in 10 parents said their autistic child has had difficulty understanding or completing schoolwork and around half said their child’s academic progress was suffering, because of remote learning. Whilst we have had great success in engaging all students in a varied programme of remote learning activities, this is a finding we bear in mind when balancing our expectations. Following our own questionnaire to families, we found that many would prefer live teaching, rather than receiving numerous worksheets to complete at home.


School closures will have also hindered many excellent provisions of careers advice, guidance and transition support. Many students are also likely to face reduced employability and work-based learning opportunities due to employers’ COVID-19 restrictions – these opportunities would have set young people up for life but until some normality appears, we must hold tight and increase our internal school creative approaches.


Another challenge we face is the changing reality of accredited learning programmes. The late notifications of changing specification regarding these qualifications and testing/examination regimes, not only impact a school and its curriculum but also students and their future.


For young people with autism approaching 16+ transition, there is now a degree of a ‘freeze mode’; a ‘wait and see’ period. This only adds to the anxieties that naturally surround this age and this stage of youngsters’ lives. It goes without saying, that the right care and support needs to be carefully administered.


Whilst schools continue to work overtime, we need to ensure that vulnerable students and their families are receiving the right support and making the most of the current educational offers. We must continue to raise aspirations for the benefit of their future - no matter how.


www.education-today.co.uk 25


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