“What the Covid-19 Pandemic will change in education depends on the thoughtfulness of education responses today”, by Fernando M. Reimers.

The Pandemic that is ravaging the globe is likely to cause the most serious disruption to educational opportunity in at least a century. The studies and lives of those currently in school will be impacted in multiple ways, some yet to be understood. Most immediately, because necessary physical distancing measures will interrupt – or have already - their opportunity to attend school they will learn less than they would have otherwise. Furthermore, they will forget much of what they learned this academic year, experiencing a variation of the well-studied phenomenon of ‘summer loss’ except that it will not be in the summer. School systems and governments will attempt to establish alternative modalities of education during the period of necessary social distancing, but those will most likely work well for children whose parents have more education, who have other social advantages, and who have access to resources, including online connectivity and devices, so they can continue to enjoy structured opportunities to learn. For many children lacking those conditions, the period of physical distancing is likely to result in very limited opportunities to learn.

from Education International - Opinion and stories https://ift.tt/39UkHpc