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One in five children have stopped almost all schoolwork during Lockdown

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Research carried out by the UCL institute of education has found that more than two million children have done virtually no schoolwork of any kind during the corona virus lockdown. The Education School of University College London published these concerning figures earlier this month, with the report going on to say that one in five pupils have spent less than an hour a day on their studies since march. The average number of hours UK children have spent on their education is just 2.5 - with only 17% of schoolchildren working more than four hours a day. A previous publication had a more tolerable figure of nearly 40%, but that seems to have fallen, with the most recent report stating that the `learning losses are much greater than feared`.

Based on the UK Household Longitudinal Study, which `provides crucial information for researchers and policymakers on the changes and stability of people`s lives in the UK,` The UCL report found that 71% of state schoolchildren received less than one daily online lesson. This figure contrasts sharply with the privately schooled pupils, with almost a third (31%) of private schools supplying four or more daily online lessons, while only 6% of state schools have managed to keep up.

Not since there second world war has there been such a nationwide disruption to education, and there are concerns that we may be creating a `lost generation` of vulnerable schoolchildren, who may never manage to catch up. Schools have done their best to provide children with learning resources during lockdown - the UCL report states that `Most homework consisted of assignments, worksheets and watching videos,` and that `On average children were given two such pieces of homework a day.`

The manner of teaching, and the actual content provided is up to each individual school, and while they will obviously be adhering to the national curriculum, it will be down to the judgement of teachers and heads how much work they set for their pupils. This will inevitably mean there will be great variance between different schools, and how they cope with the challenges of the corona virus lockdown.

As with all national crises, it will be those with less means who are hardest hit. The report said that those children eligible for free school meals faced even greater hardship, with 20% lacking access to a computer at home, while only 7% of their peers faced the same problem.

The lead author of the report Professor Francis Green, has said that `The closure of schools, and their only-partial re-opening, constitute a potential threat to the educational development of a generation of children.`

`Everyone is losing out in this generation, some much more than others. Better home schoolwork provision, and better still an early safe return to school for as many as possible, should now become a top priority for government.`

During the second world war many schools were damaged, or had been requisitioned for military use, and this led to a lack of suitable locations where teachers could conduct their lessons. Despite these hardships, innovative methods were employed, which saw lessons being held in such unlikely places as churches and pubs. During the warmer weather classes took place outdoors. Wherever they were conducted, the teacher could still conduct their classes, paying attention to the needs of their pupils. Our current crisis of course has pupils dispersed, stuck at home, and having to suddenly adapt to a new way of learning. Online lessons have been a huge help to schoolchildren during this pandemic. The relative affordability of home computers and tablets, and the fact that the most homes across the country have access to at least a reasonably fast internet connection, have meant that the majority of pupils have continued with their learning to at least some degree over the last few months. The UCL report has certainly highlighted deficiencies, but things could be worse - had this pandemic struck us ten years ago, when internet speeds were slower, and most computers lacked a built in webcam, the disruption would have been far graver.

3 years ago
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