Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Since the first identified case on 2 March 2020 until 13 July 2021, more than 1,200 people have lost their lives, meaning that too many boys and girls suffered the tragic and permanent loss of a grandparent, parent, caregiver or loved one. More than 46,860 persons tested positive, implying that and even greater number of loved ones might have fallen ill, making it hard for them to care for family, keep plans or sustain employment. Meanwhile, almost every household in Senegal was affected by restrictions designed to contain the first wave. While the strict measures were largely successful in limiting the spread of the virus, they also affected key sectors of the economy, disrupted supply chains and markets, and affected both the demand for, and availability of, social services. Essentially, COVID-19 impacted almost every aspect of life, particularly in the first quarter of 2020, which we now recognize as the first “leg” in a multi-year, planet-wide marathon to outpace the pandemic. With the closure of schools and disruption of many basic services, child protection mechanisms also lapsed, triggering a crisis for children with considerable socio-economic costs.

At the height of nationwide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 150 million children younger than 5 years in East Asia and the Pacific were affected. The pandemic brought service provision for young children in many of the 27 countries supported by UNICEF programmes that promote nurturing care and are essential to their optimal development to a standstill. Yet, even before the pandemic, more than 42 million children in the region were at risk of not reaching their developmental potential. Using the latest available evidence, this report summarizes the impact of the pandemic on services essential for young children’s development: For example, that the number of children younger than 5 years visiting community health centres in Viet Nam dropped by 48 per cent; that in Indonesia, more than 50 per cent of households reported not being able to meet their family’s nutritional needs; or that in the Philippines, more than 80 per cent of households experienced a decrease in their household income. Households facing disadvantages before COVID-19 – those with young children, those living in rural and remote areas and low-income households – are in most cases more disproportionally affected by the pandemic.

There are an estimated 281 million international migrants. One in five is a young person and 36 million are children. Worldwide, more than 4 out of 10 forcibly displaced persons are younger than 18, with 33 million children living in forced displacement at the end of 2019 – either as internally displaced persons within their country or abroad as refugees or asylum seekers. Young migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) across continents represent a unique, untapped pool of talent, ideas, and entrepreneurship. Often resilient, motivated and with experience in overcoming adversity, they have the potential to help solve some of our greatest challenges. Powered by the voices of youth, this report harnesses the technology of U-Report to ask 8,764 young people on the move, aged between 14 and 24, if they felt heard and invited them to share their aspirations to learn and earn. According to this poll, nearly 40 per cent of young people on the move identify education and training as their biggest priorities, and 30 per cent prioritized looking for a job. As the examples in this report highlight, young people on the move are a force for success. But only by creating incentives and opportunities for them to fulfil their aspirations can we turn their passions, energy and hopes into something productive and empowering.

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to an influx of research studies focusing on the new norm of online teaching–learning in higher education. However, much less is known about how this profound shift in pedagogy has impacted school education especially among rural children of India. The present study is an attempt to understand the barriers and challenges that teachers of Public-funded (PF) elementary schools face while teaching online.

Since the proliferation of television sets into households began over half a century ago there has been widespread interest in the impact that viewing has on young children's development. Such interest has grown with the increasing availability of smart phones and tablets. This review examines the literature documenting human social learning and how this learning is impacted when the instructing agent appears on a screen instead of face-to-face. It then explores the shifting nature of screen-based media, with a focus on the increasingly socio-normative manner information is portrayed. It discusses how the changing nature of screen technology might be altering how children interpret what they see, and raise the possibility that this may render prevailing evidence as historical documentation, rather than setting out established developmental milestones that transcend the period in which they were documented.

The disruptive effects of COVID-19 have impacted all sectors of our society including education. This study identified the factors influencing the private schools’ and colleges’ decision to reduce their teaching staff during the COVID-19 lockdown using survey data analyzed using Heckman two-step regression model. The results showed that age, accommodation level, hourly payment rate, tax grade level, money borrowed from government or banks, loan repayment suspension, tax payment deferral, the number of administrative employees, the student-to-administrative employee ratio, and the educational institution’s category were the significant factors affecting teaching employee reduction during the lockdown. The results of this study can help the various education sector stakeholders to take coordinated measures to withstand COVID-19 type of shocks.

This study investigated factors influenced Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' non-volitional online teaching intentions based on an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Facilitating conditions, technology complexity, and perceived anxiety were added to the original TAM as extended variables to examine their influence on Chinese EFL teachers' online teaching. Quantitative data were obtained from 158 teachers in Chinese primary and secondary schools and universities. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the extended TAM was found to be valid in explaining Chinese EFL teachers' online teaching intentions during quarantine. Teachers' behavioral intentions were significantly associated with their attitudes and perceived usefulness of online teaching.

Lockdown measures during the pandemic have resulted in school closure worldwide affecting nearly 9 out of 10 students. Consequently, remote schooling has become a growing phenomenon. However, due to a lack of infrastructural capacity and widespread poverty, the experience of remote learning in developing countries may have been unequal by pupils’ socioeconomic status, gender and location. This study draws evidence from a phone survey conducted by Young Lives (YL) in Ethiopia, two states of India, Peru and Vietnam enquiring which sociodemographic groups are benefiting more from remote schooling.

This research consisted of two studies to investigate how the Chinese rural educational system supported students' online learning and to determine the factors that influenced students' online learning quality (satisfaction and cognitive and social presence) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1, based on interviews with three curriculum officers, seven principals and 30 course teachers, found that great efforts were made to realize digital equity and education for all students. The necessity of providing resources and support to teachers and students (facilitating conditions) was recognized, along with the importance of teachers' online course design and organization and the facilitation of discourse (teaching presence and social presence). Based on the findings of Study 1 and the literature review, a conceptual model of facilitating conditions and teaching presence reported to influence students' online learning quality was generated. In Study 2, 1,409 students from three rural primary schools were surveyed to test the conceptual model.

The relationship between health and learning generally goes without question in developed countries, and has a philosophic, economic, and statutory basis. Historically, school health and school health education have evolved in response to addressing the public health needs of the times. Health literacy skills are more important now than ever. Living in an ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic reminds us of the vital role of being in control of our health, wherein health literacy plays a “life or death” role in our daily lives. Considering the evolution of school health education, this study examines the significance of health literacy in our society and schools in contemporary times.

Once the COVID-19 crisis is over, will everything” return to normal” or will we instead witness an ongoing boom in online learning? A time of crisis is an opportunity for all education systems to look to the future; there is enormous potential for digital technology in mathematics education, regardless of the impact of COVID-19. In this paper, the researcher focuses on answering two research questions: (1) Is COVID-19 the gateway for digital learning in mathematics education? (2) What type of digital technology is being used in mathematics education during the COVID-19 pandemic? The study also provided a discussion on the implications that such digital technologies could have on research into the field of mathematics education and practice in addition to suggestions for future research directions on this topic.

Children are the cornerstone of any society and as such, they need to be trained and provided with adequate opportunities to ensure their development, survival and rights on the path to their future as adults. Yet most of these children are at early age exposed to dangerous and risky jobs that affect every aspect of their development. This study contributes to a small but growing body of literature that explains the determinants of child activity decisions (including schooling, child labour and household chores) and aims to explore their prevalence in the Lebanese society along with associations with different socio-demographic factors as well as parental beliefs and perceptions around child labour and education.

Human capital development is a critical determinant of economic growth, equity, and prosperity, but outcomes in this domain are worryingly low inLebanon, risking the future of generations of children. Lebanese children lag behind their peers in human capital development—measured accordingto the World Bank (2020c) Human Capital Index—suggesting that the future productivity of the labor force and the country’s trajectory for equitablegrowth is at risk (World Bank 2020b). The Human Capital Index indicates that children born in Lebanon today will reach, on average, only 52 percentof their potential productivity when they grow up. This is lower than the average estimates for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region(57 percent) and upper-middle-income countries (56 percent). Lebanon’s poor performance on the Human Capital Index is largely attributed to theeducation outcomes calculated for the index.

Health and safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic required many face-to-face United States schools to suddenly shut their doors, moving classes to virtual learning environments. Amidst concerns of technology overuse, adolescents across the country saw dramatic increases in both personal screen time use and social isolation as they learned to navigate online schooling. Understanding the impact of the pandemic-related shutdowns upon adolescent well-being, learning, and social life is critical for designing effective online learning experiences, but research provides few insights from the adolescent perspective. This mixed methods study works to fill this gap by investigating adolescent needs and perceptions during the pandemic.