Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education

[8] Early childhood education and care as well as school closures impacted students, teachers, and families,[9] and far-reaching economic and societal consequences are expected.

[10][11][12] School closures shed light on various social and economic issues, including student debt,[13] digital learning,[12][14][15] food security,[16] and homelessness,[17][18] as well as access to childcare,[19] health care,[20] housing,[21] internet,[22] and disability services.

[26] Efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 through non-pharmaceutical interventions and preventive measures such as social-distancing and self-isolation have prompted the widespread closure of primary, secondary, and tertiary schooling in over 100 countries.

[35] During the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in the United States, school closures and public gathering bans were associated with lower total mortality rates.

When there is minimal to moderate community transmission, social distancing strategies can be implemented such as postponing or cancelling field trips, assemblies, and other large gatherings such as physical education or choir classes or meals in a cafeteria, increasing the space between desks, staggering arrival and dismissal times, limiting nonessential visitors, and using a separate health office location for children with flu-like symptoms.

[45] Additional precautions include face masks, hand sanitizer stations, rearranging classrooms to enable physical distancing, and frequent cleaning.

[48] The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine states that in-person instruction for grades K-5 and students with special needs should be prioritized to prevent children from falling behind.

Countries with poverty reported increased gender disparities as families could not afford internet usage in low-income households to pay for female education.

The study also argues that even before the outbreak, students in vulnerable neighborhoods, primarily Black, Indigenous, and other majority-minority areas, faced disparities in everything from resources (ranging from books to counselors) to student-teacher ratios and extracurricular activities.

In fact, in the U.S., the healthcare sector has one of the highest rates of childcare obligations in the broader economy, with approximately 28.8% of the workforce responsible for providing care to children aged 3–12.

The International Council for Open and Distance Education issued a special website to provide webinars, tips for online teaching and resources for teachers.

[125] The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at the American University is holding a set of webinars for different educators to guide them through copyright issues when delivering online teaching[126] and how to address best practices for fair use.

[87] In the absence of alternative options, working parents often leave children alone when schools close and this can lead to risky behaviours, including increased influence of peer pressure and substance abuse.

However, childcare is often difficult to find or unaffordable, due to its increased demand and closures of daycare centers during the pandemic, making it not a viable option for many parents.

[130] A spring 2021 academic study suggested that a much larger proportion of mothers left the workforce in US states where schools offered primarily remote education.

[130] Because working hours are a major cause of the gender pay gap, and periods of non-employment has adverse impacts on future earnings and job mobility, experts warn that the pandemic-induced reduction can set women's advancement back for decades.

Every year, nearly 30 million children rely on schools to provide free or low-cost meals including breakfast, lunch, snacks, and even dinner.

In some countries and territories for instance in Australia preschools and day cares are considered necessary services and have not closed in tandem with broader school closure measures.

[155][156] California Governor Gavin Newsom explained his state's position, saying "We need our child care facilities, our daycare centers, to operate to absorb the impact of these school closures.

[164] Moreover, research highlights that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds experienced more developmental setbacks, as they often lacked access to necessary technology and a productive learning environment.

[165] A study conducted in Israel aimed to examine how the shift to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic affected the language abilities in early childhood, specifically children from low socioeconomic status families.

[166] Researchers compared the linguistic skills – vocabulary and morphological awareness– of children who attended early education before the pandemic with those who experienced the interruption in learning during it.

Earlier studies have shown that early education is crucial for children's academic and social-emotional development, especially for those from low SES backgrounds who struggled to compensate for missed school hours at home.

This rule will exclude tens of thousands of undocumented students who participate in the government's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA, or "Dreamers") program from being able to receive emergency relief funds.

Issues like poor broadband connection and the inability for parents to properly support their children's learning due to lack of English language skills or work conflicts will see certain students fall behind academically.

[11] In March, Linda Bilmes of the Harvard Kennedy School noted that "local hotels, restaurants, cafes, shops, car rental agencies and other local businesses obtain a significant share of annual revenue from graduation week and college reunions... these communities will suffer a lot of economic damage if the colleges remain closed at that time.

[203] In India, initiatives like the National Level Common Entrance Examination (NLCEE) provided free online coaching to students during the pandemic.

By offering scholarships and virtual career guidance, NLCEE supported underprivileged students in continuing their education and preparing for competitive exams despite the disruptions caused by COVID-19.

In the city of São Paulo, which is home to half of Brazil's 120,000 Jews, Jewish schools have closed and some are providing class remotely over video.

[312] A large number of higher educational institutions cancelled classes and closed dormitories in response to the outbreak, including all members of the Ivy League,[319] and many other public and private universities across the country.