The most obvious impact of the 2020 Coronavirus on education was the cancellation of GCSE and A-level exams, with the media focusing on the chaos caused by teacher predicted grades being downgraded by the exam authority’s algorithm and then the government U-turn which reinstated the original teacher predicted grades.
While it’s fair to say that this whole ‘exam debacle’ was stressful for most students, in the end the end of exam period cohorts ended up getting a good deal, on average, as they were able to pick whichever ‘result’ was best.
It’s also fair to say, maybe, that most of the students who missed their GCSEs and A-levels didn’t miss out on that much education – what they missed out on, mostly, was the extensive period of ‘exam training’ which comes just before the exam, which are skills that aren’t really applicable in real life.
However, in addition to the exam year cohorts, there were also several other years of students – primary and secondary school students, and older students, doing apprenticeships and degrees, whose ‘real education’ has been impacted by Covid-19.
This article focuses on some of the recent research that’s focused on these ‘other’ less newsworthy students.
This post has primarily been written to get students studying A-level sociology thinking about methods in context, or how to apply research methods to the study of different topics within education.
Research studies on the impact of Coronavirus on Education.
I’ve included three sources with lots of research: the DFE, The NFER and the Sutton Trust, and then a few other sources as well.
The Department for Education (DFE)
The DFE Guidance for Schools resources seems like a sensible place to start for information on the impact of the pandemic on schools.
The Guidance for the Full Opening of Schools recommends seven main measures to control the spread of the virus.
This guidance suggests there is going to be a lot more pressure on teachers to ‘police’ pupils actions and interactions – although ‘social distancing’ is required only dependent on the individual school’s circumstances, and face coverings are not mandatory. So schools do have some discretion.
All in all, it just looks like schools are going to be quite a lot more unpleasant and stressful places to be in as various measures are put in place to try and ensure contact between pupils is being limited.
The National Foundation of Education Research (NFER)
The NFER has produced several mainly survey based research studies looking at the impact of Coronavirus on schools.
One NFER survey of almost 3000 senior leaders and teachers in 2200 schools across England and Wales asking them about the challenges they face from September 2020.
The main findings of this survey are as follows:
- teachers report that their students are an average of three months behind with their studies after missing school due to Lockdown
- Teachers in the most deprived schools are three times more likely to report that their pupils are four months behind compared to those in the least deprived schools.
- Over 25% of pupils had limited access to computer facilities during lock down. This was more of a problem for pupils from deprived areas.
- Teacher anticipate that 44% of pupils will need catch up lessons in the coming academic year.
- Schools are prioritizing students’ mental health and well being ahead of getting them caught up.
The Sutton Trust
The Sutton Trust has several reports which focus on the impact of Coronavirus, specifically on education. The reports look at the impacts on early-years and apprenticeships, for example.
A report by the Sutton Trust on the impact of the school shutdown in April noted some of the following key findings:
- Private schools were about twice as likely to have well-established online learning platforms compared to state schools, correspondingly privately schooled children were twice as likely to receive daily online lessons compared to state school children.
- 75% of parents with postgraduate degrees felt confident about educating their children at home, compared to less than half of parents with A-levels as their highest level of qualification
- 50% of teachers in private schools said they’d received more than three quarters of the work back, compared to only 8% in the most deprived state schools.
Research from other organisations
- This article from the World Economic Forum provides an interesting global perspective on the impact of coronavirus – with more than a billion children worldwide having been out of school. It highlights that online learning might become more central going forwards, but points out that access to online education various massively from country to country.
- The Institute for Fiscal studies produced a report in July focusing on the financial impacts of Coronavirus on Universities. They estimate that the sector will have lost £11 billion in one year, a quarter of income, and that around 5% of providers probably won’t be able to survive without government assistance.
- This article in The Conversation does a cross national comparison of how schools in four countries opened up. They grade their approach. It’s an interesting example of how some social policies are more effective than others!
Final Thoughts
I’ve by no means covered all the available research, rather I’ve tried to get some breadth in here, looking at the impact on teachers and pupils, and at things globally too.
By all means drop some links to further research in the comments!
