According to a newly published report commissioned by the Association for School and College Leaders (“ASCL”), the impact of the UK government’s measures in response to covid on education will persist for years to come.

The impact will unfold in a series of waves, with different age groups facing unique challenges. 

Primary schools will struggle with “acute developmental needs” among new starters, born during the pandemic, who will require targeted support throughout their education.

Secondary schools will face significant reading challenges, particularly among students who missed critical learning periods during lockdowns.

Students who experienced trauma or anxiety during the pandemic will require additional support to address behavioural issues.

On Monday, ASCL published a report ‘The Covid-19 pandemic may be a thing of the past – its impact in schools is not’ written by Tim Oates, director of Assessment Research and Development Cambridge University Press & Assessment, which warns of the educational challenges of children from the impact of covid for years to come.  The impact the report is referring to is not the impact of disease and death due to a pandemic, that was not a pandemic, but rather the impact of the Government’s response to it: “lockdowns,” school closures and remote learning.  

Commissioned by ASCL, the 11-page report draws on research showing that the lingering effects of the “pandemic” are deep, widespread and persistent, with different age groups affected in different ways.

The report stated that the “covid-19 impact is not a thing of the past – it is moving like a series of different waves up through the system.  Eleven-year-olds affected by interrupted learning are entering secondary school with very different problems to those born and young in the pandemic entering primary schools – who are displaying acute developmental needs.”

Acknowledging the speed with which high-quality research was produced in England, the report said “[But] we need to understand what the unfolding picture will look like over the next five or even ten years. This is essential, since children born or very young in the pandemic have now arrived in primary schools – giving us a sense of a problem now arriving – just at the time those who missed A Levels are graduating from university – giving us a sense of a problem abating.”

As well as the impacts being widely distributed throughout all young people, and highly individualised, different year groups were affected in very different ways – while those not doing A Levels in 2020 had learned from their experiences doing GCSEs before covid-19, those aged 18 doing A Levels in 2023 lacked that experience of revision and management of exams at 16. But different impacts occur for each year group, down through the system, to those born and young in the pandemic, who now appear to be prone to fundamental problems in cognitive and social development.

The Covid-19 pandemic may be a thing of the past – its impact in schools is not, Tim Oates, 9 September 2024

Quoting ACSL General Secretary Pepe Di’Iasio, an ASCL press release said; “This report shows that while the headlines have moved on from covid-19, the impact on schools and children remains a day-to-day reality … Schools continue to see high rates of pupil absence and they have many pupils with complex needs. At the same time, they are struggling with severe budget pressures, staff shortages and a special educational needs system on the brink of collapse.”

The report stated:

The rhetoric of the autumn of 2021 was “let’s get back to normal as soon as possible” … But “back to normal” might be causing us to seriously underestimate the massive scale and enduring persistence of covid-19 impact in education … the news cycle gives the impression of problems peaking and then subsiding … This pattern of rising and falling press coverage can be misleading: it’s more about the news cycle than the reality of covid-19 effect in schools.

While secondary schools are reporting an increase in reading difficulties among Year 7 pupils, poor personal organisation and challenging patterns of interaction, staff in primary schools are reporting very serious problems of arrested language development, lack of toilet training, anxiety in being in social spaces, and depressed executive function.

The Covid-19 pandemic may be a thing of the past – its impact in schools is not, Tim Oates, 9 September 2024

In his report, Coates suggested some generalised remedies.  Sadly, they did not include an acknowledgement that lockdowns, school closures and remote learning should never have been nor should they ever be imposed again.  Instead, Coates advocates for “using digital resources to improve the quality of work outside [teacher-pupil] contact time.”

Within the remedies section of the report, Coates acknowledges that the longer-term impacts of the Government’s non-pharmaceutical interventions in response to the covid pandemic, that never was, may transform education but not in a beneficial way:

Without concerted action, depth and scale of residual covid-19 effects will most likely pass as waves through the system, but they may transform schooling as they do, as behaviour, attendance and other problems impact on the processes and provision of schools.

I am working with one secondary school in one of the most deprived boroughs in England, whose teachers and management have realised that they have inadvertently adapted their curriculum to one which does not require reading to access content. Yes, that improves the chances for the current covid-19-affected cohorts, but the staff realise that they run the risk of permanently lowering the requirement to develop the skills which are essential for good later educational and professional progression.

The Covid-19 pandemic may be a thing of the past – its impact in schools is not, Tim Oates, 9 September 2024

The damage the Government’s covid policies would cause has always been known and many prominent scientists and others have been warning about the destructive and damaging non-pharmaceutical covid interventions since early 2020.  The resistance to lockdowns by rational thinkers the world over was overwhelmingly demonstrated not only by the massive “anti-lockdown” protests seen on the streets across the world but also by the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’.   

On 4 October 2020 three top scientists launched a declaration called the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ urging the medical community to initiate a plan of action that included “focused protection.”

As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing covid-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.

Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.

The Great Barrington Declaration

Further reading: “Great Barrington Declaration” on The Exposé

Featured image taken from ‘Not good enough’: UK school Covid closures revealed as second longest in Europe, LBC, 2 September 2021