Lockdown learners: How the impact of Covid-19 will have a lifelong impact

From pre-school through to third-level, learners have now been disrupted for two academic years and dire forecasts show this disruption will follow some all their lives. Jess Casey investigates

The coronavirus pandemic affected us all differently, and the same can be said for those in education. File photo: iStock

Before the shutdown in March 2020, Patrick, 8, would go swimming and horse riding.

His mother Nicola Scott, a lone parent, had a support network she saw regularly, made up of friends she met taking Patrick to play parks and outdoor activities near their home in Sligo.

Patrick, who has severe autism, an intellectual disability, and ADHD, attended school five days a week and had one day of home support.

Things were manageable, according to Nicola. “They were difficult but they were manageable.” The first lockdown took that routine away overnight. “At the start, they weren’t even letting children into shops. I really was on my own.” 

The period of school closures after Christmas 2020 was worse again. “With the bad weather, and having nowhere to go, with a child that needs so much structure in their day.” With the loss of his routine, Patrick, who is non-verbal, lost his sleep pattern, going from sleeping through the night to falling asleep at 11pm and waking up an hour before dawn.

Hand sanitiser outside a classroom. A staggering amount of money has been dedicated to efforts to keep Covid-19 from entering and spreading in schools. File photo: Don MacMonagle

His ADHD became more apparent and behavioural problems increased. “I was trying to manage all this on my own,” Nicola said. “It was so difficult, and in the end, I had to contact CAMHS and ask for him to be put on medication.” 

Now, with some normality resumed, Patrick is doing “ok”, according to his mother. “He’s ok. Well, he’s off on his summer holidays so that’s another change. He’s coming out the other end but he is still very unsettled.” 

The pandemic affected us all differently, and the same can be said for those of us in education. Many students had the means to make do in a bad situation, others did not.

It’s hard to paint a picture of the full impact of the disruption to education over the last 20 months. Everything since March 2020 has been in emergency mode.

The real assessment of potential damage will come as we totter out of the pandemic during a year uninterrupted by lockdowns, and undefined by external stressors and worry. 

With some form of normality hopefully approaching somewhere over the horizon, the impact of two school closures, a year of college on Zoom, and stops and starts to further education and training will become clearer.

A staggering amount of money has been dedicated to efforts to keep Covid-19 from entering and spreading in schools. The same can be said of colleges and training facilities before they were largely closed and shifted online.

Putting a figure on how much money has been allocated specifically here to making up for lost in-person learning can be far less tangible. In the UK, there is a much-touted figure of roughly £50 per school student, although this isn't exactly without its controversies. 

The expert appointed to head up its education recovery mission resigned in June in a blaze of controversy over a row about the lack of "credible" Covid catch-up funding. 

‘Catch-up tzar’ Kevan Collins was furious after a proposal for a £15bn fund to address the effects of school closures was watered down to £1.4bn, to be allocated over the next three years. 

Funding

Additional funding of almost €640m was provided to schools last year, and funding will continue to be provided to schools when they reopen at the end of August, according to the Department of Education.

This covered the costs of things like additional teachers, enhanced cleaning and hygiene measures, including hand sanitiser and PPE, as well as the reconfiguration of school buildings.

In-home tuition was put in place to support children with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage last February while schools were closed. Over 14,000 children took part.

An enhanced Summer Programme for children at risk of educational disadvantage and children with the most complex special educational needs was given a budget of €40m.

Last year, a €168m package of Covid-19 supports was pledged to the further and higher education sectors. This included a €3m wellbeing fund, €15m on student laptops, and a €10m student assistance fund. 

For 2021, €105m will be allocated to the sector, including a €10m student assistance fund, €3m for mental health supports, and €10m for mitigating against educational disadvantage. 

A spokesman for the Department of Further and Higher Education said they are also expected to announce additional funding for laptops for students shortly.

Earlier this summer, Social Justice Ireland starkly forecasted that the effect of school closures is likely to be felt into the next century, following students into the labour market, impacting their earnings, and widening the gap between rich and poor. 

This is unless a series of policies addressing learning outcomes are introduced. Norma Foley, the education minister, has indicated catch-up funding will be provided, but details at this point are still scant. 

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education confirmed that work is ongoing to finalise an autumn supports programme and further details will be available shortly. The minister believes it is important to provide supports for mitigating against learning loss and to support children's mental health and wellbeing, she added. 

What could this funding look like, and do radical solutions have to cost the earth? 

Children with disabilities

Mark O’Connor, community engagement officer with Inclusion Ireland, describes himself as an “eternal optimist”.

Throughout the pandemic, the national voluntary organisation has been vocal on the impact of Covid-19 on people with an intellectual disability, offering pretty workable solutions to issues faced by its members.

Given the last year, does Mr O'Connor feel we are doing enough to help children with disabilities and their families? “I suppose the answer is no.” 

“If you go back to March 2020, everybody was caught on the hop. We heard some great stories but we also heard some appalling stories.” 

One mother told Inclusion Ireland about how her son came home the day schools closed with just a drawing, and she had a missed call from the school the next day. “Two-and-a-half months later, and she hadn’t heard another word.” 

“But,” Mr O'Connor stressed, “We also heard stories of schools and teachers really pushing the boat out. It was all alien to teachers, so you can give them a bit of slack.” 

“Now, the schools not reopening in January, you have to really put that down to departmental failure. There was no backup plan for if it happened again.” What more should we be doing now? Giving schools ‘wiggle room’ could be a start. 

Minister for Education, Norma Foley spoke on @NewstalkFM this morning saying schools will reopen in full in September 2021. We know this is a concern for many families of children with intellectual disabilities. Listen to the interview at the link https://t.co/Ji8hVfMvxB

— Inclusion Ireland (@InclusionIre) July 26, 2021

“Where if a young person comes back and they are maybe not coping too well with all the chopping and changing over the last year, that there is access to short-term resources.” 

“We find in a lot of circumstances schools are struggling because they can’t get access to specialist therapeutic support themselves for students.” 

“Can there be an agreement between the department and the HSE to make speech and language and other therapeutic supports more available to schools on a short-term basis?” Dedicated in-school therapy supports have been successfully piloted previously in South West Dublin, Kildare, and West Wicklow, he added. 

“So we know it can be done. Is there maybe an additional bit of access when it comes to speech and language, psychologists, or occupational therapies for schools?” 

“Even just a short-term investment, for young people struggling, that the schools have an expert they can go and speak to.” 

There are reasonably good resources there in the department, albeit at a smallish level, Mr O'Connor added.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily a fortune here that needs to be spent by the department to support these pupils. There are resources there, there might be some short-time additionality required and maybe a refocusing of resources in the short term." 

Summer provision this year may have been available to more children than ever but initial anecdotal figures suggest that take-up of the programme amongst special schools was low, meaning the most students with the highest support needs are likely to have missed out.

Planning for next year’s summer provision needs to start now, Inclusion Ireland believes.

“I would respectfully request to the department that they really need to be looking at in-school provision,” said Mr O'Connor. “Planning for next summer, that needs to be happening literally now. Parents need to know what’s happening come February, schools need to know what’s happening come February.” 

College and university students

By and large, it was a bad year for third-level students. Now, with a promise that the year of ‘college on Zoom’ has come to an end, for many, it will be their first time on-campus.

Covid-19 affected us all, and from a college point of view, it extinguished most chances for face-to-face interaction, according to Clare Austick, president of the Union of Students Ireland (USI).

“It’s turned all our lives upside down, in terms of social interaction and not being able to get out and about. So that’s things like clubs, societies, making friends.” 

“For first-year students, a lot wouldn’t have moved out of the home so they wouldn’t have had the experience of independent living previous first years would have had.” 

Some students preferred not to have large lectures, and to learn in their own spaces, but others found it hard to keep up with “Zoom after Zoom after Zoom". 

Zoom fatigue was huge, and then for students having to find the motivation to study after hours online. 

"Others struggled with having no space between college and their own personal space at home. Covid also brought additional pressures on additional stress and pressures that college would have brought, for example, financial hardship, accommodation difficulties, access difficulties, mental health,” said Ms Austick 

“The real indicator of how everyone is managing and dealing with it will be the next couple of weeks when everyone starts to return to campus and colleges have inductions and orientations.” 

Are we doing enough to support students? “In terms of financial hardship and mental health, I think no,” she said.

“I think a lot more can be done in terms of support services, making sure there is access to different resources and mental health services.” 

One thing Ms Austick would like to see is an increase in sustainable funding, including funding for free social spaces.

“The majority of social spaces are those that are attached to commercial entities like you have to sit there and eat something, or you are meeting someone who is paying for food there.” 

She would also like to see increased funding for clubs and societies. “The bigger colleges may have a lot of investment in the different clubs and societies, but the smaller colleges may just have one or two clubs and they don’t have the funding for a new committee or the funding needed for new equipment.”

Adult education

Community education and training, often the first step taken by those returning to education, were also impacted by the pandemic. But there is a nuance when considering the impact on learners, according to Niamh O’Reilly, the chief executive of Aontas, Ireland's National Adult Learning Organisation which focuses on adult education.

“Really what the community education groups did [when Covid-19 first hit] was try to respond and maintain contacts with learners.” 

There was a 49% drop in accreditation levels on the national framework of qualification from Level 1 to Level 4. “That’s just one example of how the most marginalized, very understandably, weren’t in a position to take on accredited provision last year.” 

Research Aontas carried out with 2,000 further education learners also showed the pandemic impacted participation rates, particularly amongst Traveller and Roma students, down by 25%, people with a disability, and people in direct provision, both down by 15%.

“I know it's a lot of percentages but behind all of that are people who really struggled. At the same time, those learners really showed a lot of resilience. There’s a nuance to it.” 

But Covid impacted some learners more than others and it's important to recognise that, she added. Participation and accreditation rates in higher education were higher during the pandemic according to QQI statistics.

So we know the pandemic disproportionately affected people who left school early and who wanted to go back, that is irrefutable.

“Educators went above and beyond. We know they did a lot in community education in the ETBs [Education and Training Boards]. Learners showed great resilience, so whether they did or didn’t complete a course, it's definitely not a failure.” 

“Now we need to create a supportive system, where people can come back and do their courses and get back out into communities.” 

Aontas has called for resources to be directed at the learners who struggled the most due to the pandemic but who couldn’t engage.

We don't have the full picture yet, Niamh believes. “I know everybody is tired and worn out, and that we have spoken a lot about the exacerbation of educational disadvantage, but unless we fully understand it, we won’t be able to plan.” 

“We need a national strategy to look at the people impacted most, and how we can support them.” We could also make better use of 'micro-credentials, looking at ways to accredit work experience or work within a community. 

If you’re thinking about returning to education, consider getting in touch with your local ETB to learn about the education and training opportunities available near you: https://t.co/1UL6nPk0mM ⬇️#LifelongLearning #AdultEducation https://t.co/nT34KNhAtR

— AONTAS (@aontas) August 3, 2021

For Nicola Scott, there have been no discussions around further supports for her and Patrick. “There’s been a lot of media and references to families with special needs, but it seems to be all talk, to be honest.”

“There have been no therapists, therapists were redeployed and no therapists are allowed into schools at the moment so schools aren’t getting the support they need either.” 

“I really do feel after the year we’ve been through there could have been more supports.” She believes there needs to be a review of the summer provision scheme.

“Two months of holidays for children in special schools can be absolutely disastrous really, especially after everything that has happened in the last year.” 

“I do feel like therapists need to be back in schools to support teachers, and help them deal with these behaviours and to help them deal with problems they are having due to the lockdown.”