Four years ago, on 26 March 2020, the UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown came into force and our lives changed overnight.
As we saw the death toll rise, it was apparent that the elderly, the vulnerable, the sick and all those who cared for them were facing considerable risk. For the younger generation, whose physical health was less in danger, the pandemic led to a series of changes to normal life, the impacts of which are still being felt, even though the intense and unprecedented experience of lockdown is now increasingly hard to remember.
As many researchers predicted and as studies have now shown, the severe disruptions to school children’s education, their home life, and other support networks have created major gaps in their academic and social learning.
These effects were global. Nearly 147 million children missed more than half their in-person schooling between 2020 and 2022. And the sad reality is that after lockdowns ended, far fewer returned to the classroom. Current UK government figures show that a fifth of schoolchildren are persistently absent – double the pre-pandemic figure. For those who did return, it was evident that the lockdowns had exacerbated learning inequalities, with the least advantaged being the most affected.
