A pre and post COVID-19 school. The report that reveals the long-awaited data

Reported by numerous international newspapers, including The Telegraph, the study conducted by the British Ministry of Education raised the alarm about not only the overall worsening of the mental health status of the school population, but also the reduction in performance recorded in basic disciplines. A decline in text comprehension and basic skills/competences such as reading, writing and logical-mathematical calculation has been observed throughout the Old Continent. The closures due to the COVID-19 health emergency have significantly worsened the situation, following and following an already present albeit embryonic trail: young students are increasingly vulnerable, less productive and prey to mild psychopathies (anxiety and depression) which can prove fatal to learning on an ongoing basis. The effects of forced closures to limit epidemiological contagion still have direct and evident effects on the mental health of European students – especially very young ones.

Save the Children’s findings

The work was commissioned by Save the Children, Just for Kids Law and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, and will be submitted as evidence to the UK’s ongoing COVID-19 inquiry. It emerged that more than nine in 10 primary school teachers said their pupils experienced delays in emotional and social growth due to prolonged periods of school closures during the health emergency and its most acute phases. Meanwhile, 85% said that children have struggled with behavioral problems since the pandemic and 78% also confirmed that their pupils were suffering from mental health problems. Among secondary school teachers, the biggest problem noted was absenteeism, with 87% saying students are skipping school since the pandemic. Next week marks four years since the first lockdown, which saw schools closed and British citizens ordered to stay at home.

Teachers’ opinions: concerns and poor services

“Four years ago, when children were sent home from school, the warning signs were all there. My fear was that in four or five years we would look back and see a generation of children with an impact that could affect them for life. Unfortunately now we are seeing our greatest fears,” says a teacher introducing one of the study samples. The survey, conducted by Teacher Tapp, found that teachers in the most disadvantaged schools – defined by the percentage of students eligible for free school meals – were more likely to engage with students seen as disadvantaged who fell behind their more disadvantaged peers. wealthy, and to a greater extent. Four in five teachers said they had seen disadvantaged pupils falling behind their peers as a result of the lockdown, and 95% believed the government’s £5 billion COVID-19 recovery fund had not been enough to fix the damage caused. Even in Italy, the INVALSI test recently conducted for the year 2023, in addition to highlighting evident fractures on a territorial basis, underlined the increase in students (approximately +10%) with difficulties and skills not in line in Italian and mathematics.