A report from the Association for Schools and College Leaders warns of the extensive complications with learning, behaviour, and absence that will follow.
According to a new report, repairing the damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and closures of children’s education will disrupt England’s schools until the mid-2030s.
The Association for Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) published a report that predicted the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic would hit schools in waves, with different age groups requiring different solutions for their problems with absence, learning, and behaviour.
Tim Oates, an assessment expert and the author of the report, stated that “While secondary schools are reporting an increase in reading difficulties among year 7 pupils, poor personal organization, and challenging patterns of interaction, staff in primary schools are reporting very serious problems of arrested language development, lack of toilet training, anxiety in social spaces, and depressed executive function.”
Oates said it is mistaken to think that schools have returned to pre-COVID normality, which left out “the massive scale and enduring persistence of COVID-19 impact in education“.” He added that Recovery “will be a long slog, not a walk in the park”,” requiring “protracted, grinding effort” and cooperation between the government, schools, and parents.
The general secretary of the ASCL, Pepe Di’Iasio, stated, “This report shows that, while the headlines have moved on from COVID-19, the impact on schools and children remains a day-to-day reality.
“Unfortunately, the previous government failed to get to grips with this issue, ignoring recommendations from its education recovery commissioner for a substantial and ongoing support package for children and young people.
“Schools continue to see high pupil absence rates and have many pupils with complex needs. At the same time, they are struggling with severe budget pressures, staff shortages, and a unique educational needs system that is on the brink of collapse.
“We urge the new government to work with us on developing targeted, well-funded policies that respond to the challenges outlined in this report.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Education stated, “We know the pandemic has had a profound impact on children’s development – and we are determined to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of all children.
“We’re also committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school to increase attendance, and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs.”
The media has reported concerns among school leaders and experts that there might be additional classroom disruptions in the future as a “behaviour bubble” of students affected by the pandemic-era lockdowns at basic school reached the peak age of exclusions and suspensions.
However, Oates’s report states that kids born during the pandemic era now beginning school in primary schools are likely to be deeply affected throughout their education.
Oates said: “Covid-19 impact is not a thing of the past; it is moving like a series of different waves up through the system.”
Oates, who is also the director of assessment research and development at the University of Cambridge‘s assessment examination board, stated, “Eleven-year-olds affected by interrupted learning are entering secondary school with very different problems to those born and young in the pandemic entering primary schools, who are displaying acute developmental needs.”
He stated that children born during the COVID era “now appear to be prone to fundamental problems in cognitive and social development,” bringing educational challenges that “will continue to unfold over the next five to 10 years as children whose early development was affected by the pandemic pass through school.”
The report also criticizes the government’s post-COVID responses, including funding extra academic assistance for students through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), as irregular and “headline-grabbing” in their failure to reach less privileged children.
Di’Iasio stated, “While this report shows that the NTP had mixed success, it was at least something, and it has been replaced by nothing.”
Oates commented that recovery policies currently don’t match the scale of the schools’ challenges.
He states, “An evidence-driven response requires strategy and resources co-designed by schools, unions and the government. It will require parental support and community engagement. It will require protracted, grinding effort. It will require politicians dedicated to following the detail of what is happening on the ground, analyzing data, listening to schools and fine-tuning strategy.”
