Potential effects of COVID-19 school closures on foundational skills and Country responses for mitigating learning loss

Conto, Carolina Alban; Akseer, Spogmai; Dreesen, Thomas D.; Kamei, Akito; Mizunoya, Suguru; Rigole, Annika

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102434

Cited by 41 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Using the available data, researchers have sought to contribute to the building back from COVID-19 agenda on many fronts. From the educational policy perspective, they have provided estimates of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning (Selvaraj et al, 2021; Alban Conto et al, 2021 ; Angrist et al, 2021a) and the potential widening of learning gaps between different student populations ( Andrew et al, 2020 , Bonal and González, 2020 , Engzell et al, 2021 ; Haelermans et al, 2021). Moreover, they have sought to estimate the effectiveness of interventions adopted during the crisis (Angrist et al, 2020b), and have moved to study the recovery policies that work to mitigate its impact on students ( Kaffenberger, 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Education data needs and challenges for building back from COVID-19

et al. 2023

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of attempts have already been made by scholars to understand the impact of COVID-19 school closures ( Alban Conto et al, 2021 ). Estimation of learning loss is difficult using merely school closure periods because it relies on many untested assumptions.…”

Section: The Global Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Education data needs and challenges for building back from COVID-19

et al. 2023

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“…Similarly, the timely closure of schools and high education institutes were found to lower COVID-19 transmission rates in the European Union and other developed countries [40-43]. Earlier in the epidemic, a number of modeling studies had predicted more modest effects of such closures [19, 21, 24, 40-42]. However, more recent studies using empirical community transmission data have generally shown a more robust association between school closures and reductions in community cases of COVID-19 [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, more recent, and more empirically based studies have tended to show a role for school closure in reducing cases in the community [16-23]. In low- and middle-income countries such as Pakistan where learning is already inadequate and remote learning solutions are all too often unavailable for most students [24], it is paramount that such a social policy be used only if absolutely supported by evidence of a benefit in limiting COVID-19 transmission and then too, only as a means of last resort. We explore the changes in daily cases on COVID-19 pre and post school closures in Pakistan using a single-group Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ITSA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of school closures and reopening on COVID-19 caseload in 6 cities of Pakistan: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis

Mueed¹,

Ahmad²,

Abdullah³

et al. 2022

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Schools were closed all over Pakistan on November 26, 2020 to reduce community transmission of COVID-19 and reopened between January 18 and February 1, 2021. However, these closures were associated with significant economic and social costs, prompting a review of effectiveness of school closures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infections in a developing country like Pakistan. A single-group interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) was used to measure the impact of school closures, as well as reopening schools on daily new COVID-19 cases in 6 major cities across Pakistan: Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, and Muzaffarabad. We found that closing schools reduced COVID-19 incidence in the community by approximately a third of all cases nationwide. However, any benefits were contingent on continued closure of schools, as cases bounced back once schools reopened. School closures are associated with a clear and statistically significant reduction in COVID-19 cases by 0.07 to 0.63 cases per 100,000 population, while reopening schools is associated with a statistically significant increase. Lahore is an exception to the effect of school closures, but it too saw an increase in COVID-19 cases after schools reopened in early 2021. We show that closing schools was a viable policy option, especially before vaccines became available. However, its social and economic costs must also be considered.

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“…In March 2020, as the world began to recognize the threat of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), countries around the world began closing schools and childcare centers in an effort to contain and reduce disease spread ( UNICEF, 2021 ). A growing body of literature has highlighted the negative impacts of these closures on educational attainment ( Alban Conto et al, 2021 ; McCoy et al, 2021 ), children’s physical health ( Goldfeld et al, 2022 ; Rahman and Chandrasekaran, 2021 ; Woolf et al, 2020 ), children’s mental health ( Fong and Iarocci, 2020 ; Viner et al, 2022 ), caregivers’ physical and mental health ( Almeida et al, 2020 ), and gender equality in employment ( Carli, 2020 ). Less research attention has been paid to the policy options available to governments to lessen the impact of school closures on families.…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessing national action through emergency paid leave to mitigate the impact of COVID-19-related school closures on working families in 182 countries

Raub

Heymann

2022

Global Social Policy

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In April 2020, nearly 1.6 billion learners were out of school. While a growing body of literature has documented the detrimental impact of these closures on children, less attention has been devoted to the steps countries took to mitigate the impact of these closures on working families. Paid leave is recognized as an important policy tool to enable working parents the time they need to respond to family needs without risking job or income loss. This article uses a novel data set to assess whether countries had policies in place prior to the pandemic to respond to increased care needs and the extent to which policies were introduced or expanded during the pandemic to fill the gap. Only 48 countries had policies in place prior to the pandemic that could be used to respond to the care needs created by school and childcare center closures. In the vast majority of these countries, the duration of leave in these policies was too short to meet the care needs of the pandemic or relied on parents reserving extended parental leave options. Only 36 countries passed new legislation during the pandemic, but the majority of those that did covered the full duration of closures. As countries continue to face COVID-19 and consider how to better prepare for the next pandemic, emergency childcare paid leave policies should be part of pandemic preparedness frameworks to prevent further exacerbating inequalities. The policies introduced during the pandemic offer a wide range of approaches for countries to identify feasible solutions.

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Potential effects of COVID-19 school closures on foundational skills and Country responses for mitigating learning loss

Cited by 41 publications

References 19 publications

Education data needs and challenges for building back from COVID-19

Education data needs and challenges for building back from COVID-19

Impact of school closures and reopening on COVID-19 caseload in 6 cities of Pakistan: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis

Assessing national action through emergency paid leave to mitigate the impact of COVID-19-related school closures on working families in 182 countries

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