It is the best of times for policymakers to define what needs to be done to help the country recover from the pandemic’s medical and economic effects.
An optimistic scenario embraced by some is that in the shortest possible time, our lives will return to what they were in December 2019. The worst scenario is that the economy and health system would continue to suffer from the pandemic’s long-term effects as we struggle to build new models of how we manage these two essential aspects of our lives.
Not surprisingly, we do not hear much about how our children’s education will be affected in the short and longer term. There is no shortage of bickering between teachers unions and education policymakers on whether schools should be closed or kept open when infection cases soar. There is also too much squabbling on whether teachers should get priority on getting the inoculation before other groups of citizens.
The longer-term strategies to deal with the pandemic’s tail-end risks in education will take a long time to define. We still do not have sufficient information on how different students have been affected. We have heard much about the risks of having a ‘lost generation’ of children who will suffer permanent damage to their ability to learn with massive adverse effects on their lives and the economy in future.
What worries me more is our inability to deal with the short-term effects of the disruption in our students’ schooling in the last and the current school years. Although our schools may have been less affected than those in other European countries like the UK and Italy, it would be dangerous to equate this with risk-free management of schools during the pandemic.
The reward for making bold decisions in our educational system outweigh the costs
The phenomenon of “summer learning loss” has long been noted. When students return to school in autumn, some of the knowledge they had acquired before the summer holidays is lost. Various international studies use standardised tests that measure the extent of summer learning loss.
For instance, one study conducted in the US concluded that primary and early secondary school students gain eight points on the scale used in this study during the school year. They then lose four of those points during the summer. This loss of learning affects students in most subjects, including English.
We have a unique opportunity to rethink the model we use for educating our children. There are various enablers that we need to consider. Some old ones may prove to be less effective than we might have believed. Others might open new doors to reinvent our educational system to make it fairer, especially to those leaving the education system with no or low-level skills.
Some policymakers are touting the use of online learning as a solution to the crisis that the pandemic has created for our primary and secondary school students. There is, of course, a case to be made for e-learning in future curricula.
But more radical solutions are needed. When the medical risk abates, schools need to be kept open for longer by reducing the summer holidays. We have among the most extended school summer holidays in Europe. The impact of the crisis on gaps in cognitive skills, such as maths and reading, is only one aspect of the problem. Non-cognitive skills such as patience, perseverance and the ability to interact socially with others are crucial for children’s success.
The pandemic risks widened the gap between children from relatively well-off families and those who live in financially distressed households. The equalising effects of schools are mute when schools are closed, and the burden of formal education returns to families. If we do not take bold decisions to address this risk, we will strengthen the alarming trend of increased polarisation and lower mobility in our society.
Sensible public discussions on how we can improve our educational system are scarce. These discussions should not be only on making the teaching profession more respectable in our society’s eyes. It is about how policymakers, teachers and their unions, and parents work together to make tough decisions that determine our children’s future.
The summer heat issues, teachers’ long-established rights for longer holidays and how to compensate educators for a more extended school year are all surmountable. The reward for making bold decisions in our educational system outweigh the costs.
What matters is whether we are prepared to move out of our comfort zones to invest in our children’s future.