Covid-19 brought in rapid shifts in education practices of which online learning is probably the most apparent one. All students, of all levels had to engage in some sort of online learning activities -- be it attending live classes, watching recorded videos, or submitting assignments through google classrooms.
Regardless of how the activities continued, in many cases students experienced significant changes in their own study habits. One most important aspect of the changed behavior is the amount of time students actually dedicated to their self-learning. Before Covid-19, students attended classes at school, colleges, universities, returned home, then spent more time learning by themselves or attending private tuition.
Due to classes being shifted online, there was a disruption in this regular practice, but what was its impact on the actual time students spent learning outside of institutionalized classes? And what was the approximate loss in education overall? According to a UNICEF estimate, 37 million children experienced educational disruption in Bangladesh due to the pandemic lockdowns.
In general, the common idea is that Covid-19 caused significant learning losses. According to World Bank, students in Bangladesh could lose up to 0.9 years of learning due to school closures caused by the pandemic. Sure, online learning practices can be good complementary sources for learning. But there are differences between the same practices being adapted during normal times, and during a disastrous, unexpected emergency.
Then what factors actually affected the time students spent learning? And did these factors affect students of all levels similarly? For example, university goers were already somewhat used to watching lectures online for course work. But for school level children, who often didn’t have similar technological access in the context of Bangladesh, the online classes may have impacted very differently. Then again, the impacts are expected to differ among students of 11-12th grade and students younger in high school or primary school.
The number of times, or the frequency in which school children had to use devices for attending online classes is definitely one factor that affected their time spent in individual or tuition-based learning. The more time students spent learning online, the more it may have affected the time spent for coaching and self-learning. Students who attended more online classes probably had more content to cover which demanded more study time.
On another hand, more frequent device usage may affect the energy level of school children more adversely, reducing the time they spent learning on their own. Literature suggests that better technological access may yield better academic performance, meaning better access to online classes may affect the academic outcomes of the school-going children. According to a survey by UNICEF, only 37% of school-age children in Bangladesh had access to the internet for online learning during the pandemic.
The financial turmoil that the families had to incur oftentimes may have affected the children negatively, which obviously can trickle down to their study habits. If a family belonged to a low-wealth quantile, the family most likely had to incur some sort of financial threat during the pandemic. Children are observant and intuitive, even the young ones of primary level. Such a tumultuous situation in the household makes children feel more insecure and impacts their mental stability which is a crucial precondition for academic efforts.
The financial conditions may dictate what level of access a child has to online classes, which in turn may affect their study efforts. Many studies have indicated a gap between urban and rural students regarding their digital access which is most likely attributable to the financial background students belong to. As per World Bank, quantifying the loss of learning in terms of labor market returns, the average Bangladeshi student will face a reduction around $335 in yearly earnings, which represents almost 6.8% of their annual income.
Speaking of how the children were emotionally affected during Covid-19, many have reported feeling isolated, fearful, and anxious. A survey by Save the Children found that 83% of children globally reported an increase in negative feelings due to Covid-19-related school closures. Studies have shown that, during the lockdowns, students felt disconnected from their peers and their teachers due to no practical or real-life contact. The literature also suggests that lockdowns affect interpersonal relationships of the students and their overall wellbeing, which as expected, affects their educational outcomes. If a child is feeling anxious and disconnected, their motivation for attending to coaching-based learning or trying to study by themselves automatically reduces. A study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that children experiencing high levels of anxiety and disconnection were less motivated to engage in self-study or coaching-based learning.
This has also contributed to educational inequality between urban and rural areas in multiple ways- be it from poorer access to the internet, or varying dropout rates. A study by PPRC and BIGD highlighted a significant urban-rural divide, with urban students being three times more likely to access online education compared to their rural counterparts. Similar findings can also be derived from a survey conducted by BRAC, only 12% of children in rural areas had access to the internet for educational purposes during the pandemic, compared to 49% in urban areas.
According to a World Bank Study, there exists a digital divide between rich and poor households. When compared with the richest families, 9.2% of the poorest had access to televisions versus 91% for the richest.
According to a World Bank estimation, $17 trillion would be lost in a lifetime earning of the school children who were affected during the pandemic unless corrective measures are undertaken. In such a scenario, it is important to understand the factors that harmed children’s education during the lockdowns instead of just focusing on recovering their educational losses. Without factoring into deeper causes, the post-pandemic educational recovery wouldn’t be as effective.
Nafisa Kabir Rhyin and Tasmim Sultana Nawmi are both graduate students at East West University.