Children and COVID-19 Research Library

From January 2020 to May 2020, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a huge impact on the Chinese people, especially young people in school.Starting from the end of February2020,many primary and middle school students were forced to take online courses at home due to long-term isolation.Because the college and high school entrance examination were particularly concerned in China, the pressure of preparing for the exams and the impact of the pandemic have brought a double psychological burden to the middle school students.

This survey collected data on the status of remote learning among school-going children across the country. It was conducted in 86 out of the total 335 sub-counties across 42 of the 47counties. We leveraged technology to collect data using the KoboCollect platform via phone calls from 3,735 households spread in 258 villages.

UNESCO has been monitoring education responses to COVID-19 globally, collecting and analyzing information and facilitating policy dialogue and experience-sharing. Key policy issues include the timing, the conditionsand processesfor school reopening. The effectiveness of these policy decisions and reopening strategies will depend on the level of preparedness of the education system in terms of infrastructure (health and sanitary measures); teaching staff (ability to provide both psychosocial and academic support); pedagogical preparedness (offering remedial action and alternative modalities to meet learning objectives); learners, families andcommunities (ability and willingness to return to school and readiness to continue learning).

The overspread of the novel coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2—over the globe has caused significant damage to manufacturing and service businesses, regardless of whether they are commercial, public, or not-for-profit sectors. While both the short-term and long-term impacts of most companies can be approximately measured or estimated, it is challenging to address the enduring effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning activities. The target of this research is to investigate students’ manners of studying at home during the school suspension time as a result of COVID-19. Through analyzing original survey data from 420 K6–12 students in Hanoi, Vietnam, this work demonstrates the different learning habits of students with different socioeconomic statuses and occupational aspirations during the disease’s outbreak.

This dashboard shows country-level data  on the impact of COVID-19 on national education systems. The COVID-19 page provides an overview of the impact caused by the current outbreak on different aspects of education and learning.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools around the world, disrupting the education of almost 1.6 billion students according to UNICEF, classrooms were closed to millions of displaced children. Less than half of school-aged refugee children were enrolled while only one in four were attending secondary school. Months-long school closures risk reversing small gains recently made in expanding access to education for refugee children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools around the world, forcing school systems and students to quickly attempt remote learning. A rapid response phone survey of over 1,500 high school students aged 14 to 18 in Ecuador was conducted to learn how students spend their time during the period of quarantine, examine their access to remote learning, and measure their mental health status. The data show that 59 percent of students have both an internet connection at home and a computer or tablet, 74 percent are engaging in some online or telelearning, and 86 percent have done some schoolwork on the last weekday. Detailed time-use data show most students have established similar daily routines around education, although gender and wealth differences emerge in time spent working and on household tasks. Closure of schools and social isolation are the two main problems students say they face, and while the majority are mostly happy, 16 percent have mental health scores that indicate depression.

The new school year began with online classes for the first time. How the Ministry Of Education (MOE) and local education offices secured digital devices to lend to students in need, and schools prepared online class guidelines, including the class hours, format, attendance, and evaluation. How the government mobilized academia, government-led institutions, and the private sector to overcome technical problems, increased burden of teachers, and equity issues in learning from online classes. In preparing for the physically reopening of schools, it is important to prepare strategies to respond to any additional extended breaks if the virus comes back and to enable local authorities and schools to develop their reopening plans to prioritize the needs of students and the local community, and implement it working with the community partners. Using this crisis to build an education system that can reach everyone and be resilient and sustainable in a time of crisis.

School closure and stay-at-home, as a part of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI), have been implemented in China since February as an effective way to mitigate the spread of the virus during the COVID-19 outbreak. As concerns rose over the potential impacts of such NPI measures on children’s health, such as longer exposure to digital screens, irregular sleep pattern, weight gain, and loss of cardiorespiratory fitness [1], the Chinese Government, experts on public health, educators on school health, and teachers have been making joint and massive efforts to provide distance learning with well-organized online courses to help.

Nearly half the national school student population is at risk of having their learning and wellbeingsignificantly compromised by not being at school because they are in a vulnerable group, due to their young age; social disadvantage; specific needs; or family employment context. As soon as health restrictions permit there is an urgent need to reconnect these students to the physical context of school-based learning to support their learning and wellbeing outcomes. Concurrently there is a need to invest rapidly in developing significant capability in schools to deliver education both online and on-site

The purpose of this review is to provide evidence on four effective distance learning modalities that can be implemented in USAID-recipient countries during and beyond emergencies. These four distance learning modalities—radio/audio, video/television, mobile phone programming, and online learning—are examined alongside the technologies used to access distance learning (radios, mobile phones, televisions, tablets, and, to a lesser extent, computers). While these modalities can be implemented in conflict settings and during crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic when learning institutions are closed, their utility also extends beyond these extreme circumstances in order to promote inclusion and to increase access to quality teaching and learning.

This report describes national policy and strategy responses for ensuring educational continuity in the context of widespread school closures implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on a selection of high-income and low-income contexts. The evidence highlights the current, and rapidly changing status of national policy and strategy responses to date. The report examines key themes emerging form policy and strategy response and reflects on these: which are working, and which are not working so well? The nature of the evidence and material available at this stage of the crisis makes firm conclusions hard to reach. Despite this the report concludes with a set of recommendations supported by the literature as it stands.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented situation whereby schooling has been disrupted for almost 1.6 billion children and youth as governments enforce total or partial closures of schools in efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Higher education institutions have also suspended classes. As of late April, UNESCO estimates that 91% of those enrolled in formal education programmes have been affected. The closure of schools, universities, technical and vocational training institutes has also affected refugee learners and students. In these challenging times, displaced and refugee students are at a particular disadvantage and there is a risk that progress in increased enrolment may be eroded. The suspension of school feeding programmes could affect the nutrition and health status of refugee children and youth. Lessons drawn from other pandemic responses that included extended school closures have shown that girls are less likely to return to school and are at greater risk of falling behind1. As many governments move to at-home learning modalities, many refugees are disadvantaged as they experience uneven access to distance education and online learning opportunities and hardware, and do not have access to support services such as language classes.

This rapid review focusses on efforts to mitigate the educational impact of previous disease outbreaks, concentrating on school-age learners. It follows two companion papers that reviewed broader secondary effects and attempts to mitigate them (Rohwerder, 2020; Kelly, 2020). It aims to inform the education sector’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis, although there are important differences between previous disease outbreaks and the COVID-19 situation.

Little research attention has been paid to documenting and analyzing attempts of education systems moving quickly and at scale to provide online learning when all or many schools are closed. Related 'good practices' are considered rare, and on the whole, activities and initiatives of these sorts are poorly documented, especially when it comes to the needs of learners and education systems across the so-called 'developing world'. That said, it is possible to extrapolate from the existing knowledgebase about the use of educational technologies in general over past decades, as well as from consensus expert and practitioner wisdom and experience, to offer high-level guidance and 'rules of thumb' for policymakers forced to make related decisions in fast moving, very challenging circumstances with little guidance or relevant experience.