How has COVID-19's financial consequences affected children's education?

How has COVID-19 affected parents financially and how has this has affected children’s education?

Over a third of all parents have reported that their earnings have decreased since February 2020.[1]

Only a half of working parents in February 2020 was still working in May 2020.[2]

But what does this have to do with education? And how has it affected our children’s education?

·       Most home learning requires technology such as a computer or a mobile device.

With reduced earnings from the lockdown period, around one in eight children did not have access to the technology required.

Alongside this, 50% of primary schools and 40% of secondary schools did not offer any support for this.

Partner this with the decreased earnings in parents, this has created a widening gap in education.

·       Students across primary and secondary schools spent just over 30% less time learning during COVID-19 than in previous years.

·       Only about 20% of students reported doing more than 4 hours a day of education.[3]

This is for a few reasons:

·       With no real support from the government for those not in the ‘disadvantaged category’, parents with decreased earnings not entitled to this support may not have the money to spend on the devices needed.

·       For parents who are still at work will not have the time to spend a full day on their children’s education.

What are the knock-on effects of this?

·       Only 40% of parents reported having any leisure time during the lockdown period.[4]

This will of course have had an adverse effect on the mental health of parents.

This will then have lowered the quality of home schooling their children would have been receiving during this period and even potentially lower the amount of time each day.

This loss of time could have also been attributed to parents still being at work and trying to maintain a busy schedule alongside providing a good education for their children.

However, despite all of this, the parents and families within the UK have done excellently within these tough times to ensure that children have had a good quality education, often sacrificing their own earnings.

It is undeniable, however, that the financial cost of COVID-19 on parents and families has had a big effect on the education of children and only time will tell how long the impact is felt for.

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[1] Nuffield Report (2020) ‘Family time use and home learning during the COVID-19 lockdown’ Available at Nuffield Report -Family-time-use-and-home-learning-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-1.pdf

[2] Nuffield Report (2020) ‘Family time use and home learning during the COVID-19 lockdown’ Available at Nuffield Report -Family-time-use-and-home-learning-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-1.pdf

[3] Nuffield Report (2020) ‘Family time use and home learning during the COVID-19 lockdown’ Available at Nuffield Report -Family-time-use-and-home-learning-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-1.pdf

[4] Nuffield Report (2020) ‘Family time use and home learning during the COVID-19 lockdown’ Available at Nuffield Report -Family-time-use-and-home-learning-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-1.pdf