UK (Commonwealth Union) – As the world tries to move on from the pandemic, severe scarring left by extreme lockdowns, devastations of the economy continue to haunt many. The education sector, which largely switched on-line, was a lifeline for many students who were set to fall back on their education, but did not prove to be the ideal solution for all as many with disabilities and medical conditions were negatively affected and science students requiring lab attendance fell back on their research and training.
Four-fifths of students stated that furthering their academic work took a hit due to the pandemic, with government school students more than twice as likely to feel that they were below their classmates than independent school pupils, demonstrated by a new study led by the University College London (UCL).
Published today, the results are the 1st from the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study, which is a major national youth cohort study evaluating findings on approximately 13,000 young persons from over 500 schools across England. A partnership between the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalizing Opportunities (CEPEO), the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) and the Sutton Trust, where work will continue with the ambition of looking into the short-, medium- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for educational inequality, wellbeing and social mobility.
COSMO Principal Investigator, Dr Jake Anders of CEPEO, stated that COSMO gives new insights into pandemic impacts on young people with strong indications of deeply furthering existing inequalities that are not completely addressed by policy response. “And these short-term effects are just the start. We aim to continue following the lives of this cohort over the coming years. Whether or not we think of the pandemic as over, its effects will continue to cast a long shadow, and COSMO will help us to understand this in the years to come,” he added.
