Irish children became less accomplished in reading and mathematics after the Covid-19 pandemic, with children from poorer backgrounds falling further behind their better-off peers.
This is according to the latest report in Children’s School Lives (CSL) , a landmark longitudinal study undertaken by UCD‘s school of education and funded by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
The study followed 4,000 children across almost 200 schools from the years 2019 to 2023.
Its 10th report is published on Thursday, and includes for the first time the educational outcomes of students.
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Average reading attainment of second class children surveyed in the spring of 2023 was significantly lower than the second class children surveyed in the spring of 2019.
Children in Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) schools, from poorer backgrounds, from immigrant families, and Traveller children scored significantly lower on average in reading than their peers in non-Deis schools in both periods.
The Deis scheme aims to reduce educational disadvantage by providing extra support to schools in poorer socio-economic areas.
The study found that while there was always a gap in the reading scores of children in Deis versus non-Deis schools, that gap widened after the pandemic.
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Previous reports from the CSL study pointed to rising inequalities for children from poorer homes during the pandemic, in terms of access to digital technologies and parents’ own knowledge of how to support their children’s learning at home during lockdowns.
This report found the gap between attainment in maths by children in Deis and non-Deis schools also widened post-pandemic.
The study also found that girls in all-girls schools performed better in maths, regardless of their background, while second-generation migrant children also did as well or better than their peers.
Drawing on the use of case studies in their report, the researchers found that families experiencing poverty face intersecting challenges of food and housing insecurity, addiction, and social isolation.
“In communities marked by urban neglect, social segregation and stigma, parental engagement with schools declines over time – reflecting how difficult it is to sustain educational engagement during periods of acute stress,” the researchers noted.
Principals in Deis schools also reported higher stress, burnout and lower self-efficacy, or belief in their own capability, than their peers in non-Deis schools. These issues worsened over time, reflecting the difficult circumstances in which they teach.
The number of principals in Deis schools who reported feeling emotionally drained almost doubled from 36 per cent pre-pandemic to 60 per cent after Covid.
Similarly, those who reported feeling fatigued rose from 4 per cent in 2018/19 to 23 per cent in 2022/23.
While the study took place across 184 schools nationally, it took a closer look at 12 case study schools and 28 case study children and their families.
One of those case study children was “Niamh”, who researchers followed from second to sixth class in her Deis primary school in an urban community with high levels of poverty and social deprivation.
She is described as “quietly determined” and having a “loving family with strong intergenerational support” and a mother who wants her to “break a cycle of intergenerational poverty and early school leaving”.
However, the challenges in her school are noted by one of her teachers, who says the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns “did not suit these children at all ... a class like this, that is so vulnerable ... they need people close to them all the time, to nurture and encourage them”.
