eLearning and eTraining report
While it is difficult to measure the impact the switch to remote learning has had on children and young people, one evident trend is that those who entered the pandemic with the fewest academic opportunities are on track to exit with the greatest learning loss. Described as a global experiment, remote education, necessitated by the pandemic, has taken many forms as nations sought to manage the spread of the virus within their own restrictions. Pinpointing the outcomes of remote learning for children and young people has proven difficult when considering the many variables, not least the different lengths of school closures, different delivery methods and differing levels of accessibility. While it is obvious that remote learning has brought benefits in relation to access to education that would not have existed had schools simply remained closed, the overwhelming indication from research is that remote learning remains a poor substitute for being back in the classroom and that students have paid a heavy price in lost learning. Many countries, including Ireland, are still deliberating on the best pathway to return all students back to classroom and so an efficient evaluation of the full impact of remote education will require
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fuller analysis in the future. However, a common theme emerging from current research is a divide in relation to remote education outcomes. In February 2021, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) offered some insight into the divide when it published data in relation to the impact of school closures on students’ learning and social development, informed by input of more than 1,600 parents. The data sought to capture opinions on the different outcomes for different age groups within education. It suggests that the negative impact of school closures is less prevalent when moving down the sliding scale of age groups, for example, almost half of parents with a child in fifth or sixth year secondary education reported a major negative impact on their learning, compared to just over a third for the whole of secondary education. These figures fell further when assessing the impact of school closures on primary school children, where almost 15 per cent reported a major negative impact.
Looking at it from another perspective, the data outlines that only 9 per cent of parents with a child in fifth or sixth year reported a positive effect of remote education on their child’s learning and this figure fell significantly further for children in junior cycle secondary education, where the rate was just 1.5 per cent.
Disadvantage However, research carried out outside of Ireland would suggest the need for closer analysis, not just of the outcomes for children and young people of different ages, but also the impact on the different levels of disadvantage. A report by McKinsey & Company has sought to look into the cost of remote working on pupils, with a particular focus on vulnerable students. Unlike the CSO data, the McKinsey report surveyed teachers, recognising their unique viewpoint in “deciphering the long-term impact of this protracted learning experiment”.
