There will be so many illiterate kids after Covid.

[Elephant4]

If we lockdown again - and even if we don't.

So many kids are getting little to no education. It's been almost a year now and looks like it could last another one.

I'm not talking about my kids. I look after them and educate them after school and during lockdowns etc as best I can.

But there's so many kids round here who have little to no parental support. We live in a deprived area with high Covid rates. Barely any of the kids had any education during lockdown. In the last term bubbles, year groups, classes have been sent home constantly. Schools have been shut due to teacher shortages. When the kids are at school they're not being taught due to supply teachers - behaviour being awful - much worse than before.

The kids at Secondary level here were already underachieving. This pandemic's school closures etc will leave thousands all over the country illiterate - or otherwise very close to it - I reckon.

Your title sounds hyperbolic OP, and you’ll probably get loads of people insisting that children are ‘resilient’ and will ‘bounce back’ from this experience - but actually I don’t think your assessment is that far off.

The kids are resiliant, the parents aren't. They would have been if Early Years and Sure Start provision hadn't been defunded for over a decade. But we've an aging electorate that wants care for the elderly and politicians know where the votes are. If you want this to change for next time, vote for something different and get your kids grandparents to do the same.

Like PP, I think it's inequality which will become more entrenched - my own DD goes to a school which saw no class closures at all last term (and we're in a city where some entire schools have been closed). During the first lockdown we were able to provide her with a laptop (albeit 8 years old), and sit alongside her to encourage her with her work (boy was the English dull). Other parents I've spoken to at her school could do the same. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was already a school with very little deprivation, and stellar SATS scores.

However others I know are keyworkers, some lone parents WFH full time, where the only device in the home is a smartphone - while the work DD was set could theoretically be done on a screen, much of it was far easier when printed out. Their children's schooling has been repeatedly disrupted last term. No prizes for guessing which children will be further ahead academically.

I recruit for admin jobs in my role (civil service) and easily a third of the applicants are dreadful. Very poor spelling and grammar. We ask them to answer competency based questions and a lot of the answers don’t make any sense.

What kind of jobs do functionally illiterate people do?

Myself and dh are both educated and my kids definitely went back to school deficiency this year even though I'm a sahm and worked hard trying to keep up. The problem is there's no easy answer to this in places where case numbers are high

@DianaT1969

Giving another view, my 10 year old nephew has become an avid reader during the first lockdown. He can't take his head out of a book now. Both of his parents worked and he isn't from a privileged background. He was home alone with his older sister and not allowed screen time until evening. He wasn't like that before. I wonder if other children discovered a love of books.

Diana my DDs reading really took off during lockdown too - she read seven Worst Witch books one week whilst I had constant online meetings/other work that meant I could only give her a few hours of my time for weeks. I felt dreadful about it but she kept herself busy. My DS, not so much...

One in five children left primary school in 2018 unable to read or write properly. So yes, I think the OP is right to be concerned.

And if one in five can't read or write after primary - they're sure as hell not going to learn to read or write at Secondary. Are they?

In a educational career lasting from age 5 to 18, with 2 terms in school missed (but work was set and marked), you think illiteracy is the outcome?

Work was not ‘set and marked’ in many schools. Even in home learning since September (due to bubbles bursting) we were actively told not to upload any written work to the online portal for teachers to see. Apparently they were only interested in commenting on photos of kids baking etc. There’s a huge difference in what various schools have done & even with a lot of support one of our dc has gone from top of what was expected for their age (parents evening comments before lockdown said they were going to encourage them to reach the exceeding expectations band) to most recent zoom parents evening where we were told they were now falling in to the below expected band. My dc won’t end up illiterate but I do worry about others not as fortunate.

Better than being bereaved and grieving the loss of close relatives or parents though, don’t you think?

They’ll catch up, it will work itself out.

They’ll catch up, it will work itself out

Except it really won’t in a lot of cases.

They’ll catch up, it will work itself out.

Err - sorry - how will they catch up?

I'm not talking about kids from secure homes, where they're well fed and have books - even a roof that they can rely on over their heads.

I'm talking about kids who live in poverty/both parents out working full time/no internet etc. You know who I'm talking about! How will it work itself out for these kids, when they're dumped at the end of GCSEs with nothing.

Prior to Covid they might have stood a chance. I don't think they will do now. Do you @DoThePropeller?

In 2019, 61% of students got a grade 4 or above in English Language and 59% for maths. So 40% of children are 'failing' maths and English even without the pandemic.

YANBU

Lockdown polarises the advantaged and disadvantaged.
It delays assessments, diagnosis, EHCPs interventions.
Parents lose sight of where their child is at compared to others and don't notice early signs of delays inndevelopment to flag up.
Children lack technology
Parents lack time
Understanding of the curriculum.
Aggravating mental health difficulties and stress.
Lack of access to peers, and real life social opportunities.
Lack of physical activity.
Older children being suceptible to radicalisation, gangs and illegal activity.

Lockdown damages children and their opportunities for the future. That is hard to claw back and not all children will bounce back to a non-Covid potential.

While I’m aware this is an emotive issue and the impact will definitely be felt for years to come this will at the very most have taken up about a year of education out of 12 years of education something is going seriously wrong if after 11 years of education a child comes out at age 16 not being able to read

You're not talking about your DCs and because of that, you have no knowledge of the support in place for the DCs that need it. I'm so tired of these bullshit pretend caring threads that suddenly pop up when Us for Them think the schools are going to close.

If you did care then you'd know that vulnerable DCs were given access to hubs. You'd know that many schools in deprived areas provided their DCs with electronics/ipads so they could access online learning. You'd know that social services identified DCs and families at risk and provided food packages. You'd know that even when the schools closed, their canteens were open and preparing food for distribution in the community, etc, etc.

But you don't know any of that because actually you don't care about those DCs and have never taken the time to work in their communities or to talk to the people who are working constantly to support them.

I actually disagree with the OP but had to comment on this:

"In a educational career lasting from age 5 to 18, with 2 terms in school missed (but work was set and marked), you think illiteracy is the outcome"

We had no work marked AT ALL! Approx 10 random worksheets put up on the public school website each week, no feedback, no answer sheets and a total of 1 phone call from the teacher throughout the whole lockdown period.

I don't think a few weeks of being out of school will lead to illiterate children, it is clearly far from ideal to interrupt their education and as much as possible I want DD at school, with her friends, engaged and enjoying learning. I don't want her stuck at home while me and her dad work and try to find ways to engage her while also doing our jobs.

Where I think the real risk is in closing schools is for children who are abused, neglected or who's parents do not have the ability to care for them full time. Those children need to have the daily interaction with school to support them.

A good friend of mine currently works with a little boy who has no mother tongue.

He's apparently rather clever and taught himself some English (tv/cartoons) and has been picking up the language spoken in the kindergarten and his language classes as well.

But there's apparently simply nobody that spoke to him at home. And it's not the first time she had a case like that.

Imagining how children in these stations have (probably) been developing is worrying, I agree.

If a child ends up illiterate because they missed a few months of school, then there was little hope for them in the first place.

@DartmoorChef

There will be a huge gap in abilities between the kids whose parents have encouraged and helped them to continue learning during this, and the ones whose parents were either unable or unwilling to. Yanbu.

But there is always a gap like this anyway, in normal times. Children who have parental support at home do better than those who don't.

I do agree that the current education situation is not helping matters, but it is not the original cause.

@CovidCakeConundrum

YABU! A lot of countries don't even start formal education until 6, UK kids have an extra 2 years to catch up. 2 terms really shouldn't make a difference.

Exactly what I've been saying. They will be more 'ready to learn'. Our children are forced into formal education far to early and the National Curriculum makes unreasonable demands.

I'm so tired of these bullshit pretend caring threads that suddenly pop up when Us for Them think the schools are going to close.

Yep, they only care about vulnerable kids when they think they can use them as an argument to keep their own kid in school.

Pretty despicable really.

And if the OP genuinely cared about literacy levels then that concern would have surfaced before now and they'd know a damn lot more about the support processes involved.
It's easy to quickly google statistics and pretend to care about an issue. But those quick Googles don't actually tell you what is already in place or what the processes are. It's why it's easy to spot performative caring that's actually about pushing a particular political agenda rather than genuine engagement with issues.

They are also the demographic that have higher fatality rates from covid.

The system around them will modify, as it has already, exams will be cancelled, different assessment methods implemented, lower thresholds for the next phase of education, or a uni place.

Schools in disadvantaged areas already have the highest absence rates for sickness and incidences of self isolation, at least in a lockdown everyone is remote learning.

I agree with the PP who said vulnerable children are where the concern is. A couple of months (worst case) isn’t going to lead to a generation of illiterate degenerates.

Yep. My year 1 can barely read and refuses to read with me.

Lockdown damages children and their opportunities for the future. That is hard to claw back and not all children will bounce back to a non-Covid potential

Some children. Not all. Some thrived during lockdown. Why is their experience any less valid?

What of children who are currently vulnerable or who are living with someone who is vulnerable? Why dis all they are offered is ‘stay at home’? Why is their education any less important than that of any non-vulnerable to covid child? Why do their parents have to choose between home education (which they may not be able to support for all the same reasons as anyone else) or take your chances? Why is it that only the educational outcomes of vulnerable due to home circumstances suddenly matter? Because a year ago, I don’t remember any threads asking what could be done to support such children .

My 6 year old was illiterate at the start of lockdown. He learnt to read in April. Previously he was too stressed by a day at school where he couldn’t read the work to do extra at home without a meltdown. In April we ignored set work (except maths) and just read together. By September his new teacher said he’d never have known he had struggled before. Lockdown allowed him to get to the point where he is able to engage with learning.
This isn’t down to him having amazing parental support (DH spent April trying not to die of covid, I spent it caring for 4dc, 3 of whom had symptoms for a week, and worrying about DH). When not ill we both work, and when I’m off work my attention is divided between 4dc only one of whom proved able to learn independently. Lockdown has done ds7’s education good. DS15 has finally gained study skills/ question answering skills. DD13 was doing well and stayed motivated and on track. DS8 lacked motivation but has stayed on track with a bit of bribery! All in all, from my unrepresentative sample, despite limits to parental support and one laptop between 4, lockdown learning has done more good than harm.