Children are expected to spend a large proportion of their time in education or school. One of the features of the ‘new normal’ introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic was a large reduction of time spent in school. According to a recent United Nations (UN) report: ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history’ (UN, 2020, 2).
Research focused on time away from school, whether due to lockdowns, vacations, teacher strikes or other disruptions, points to significant loss of learning (see Ardington, Wills & Kotze, 2021, 2; Taylor, 2020b, 149. ). Learners lose learning at two levels: what they could have learned had they been at school and some of what they had learnt before due to lack of use of the acquired skill and related materials.
School closures impacted learners in many ways, not least of which is what they were able to learn. Read the latest JET Exchanges: Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children: Learning and other losses authored by Zahraa McDonald and Nick Taylor.
Read the JET Exchanges issue here
