Schools struggle to keep classes open in latest coronavirus wave

Last week school principal Enda McGorman received word that four of his teachers were out for Covid reasons. The following morning, the number had doubled to eight.

"This is every bit as bad as it was last January and December, if not worse," says McGorman, principal of Mother of Hope National School, Littlepace in Dublin 15.

This week the 450-pupil school had a third of staff out of action. As a result, it had to divert support teachers for special needs pupils into mainstream teaching roles to prevent classes being sent home.

The school, like many others across the State, has been struggling to keep its doors open during the latest Covid wave. But the rolling nature of school disruption is raising fresh concerns over the long-term scale of learning loss among pupils.

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“This feels different,” says McGorman. “The repeated disruption is massively damaging for schools and pupils . . . we’re seeing staff getting repeat infections now. As soon as some recover, others are off.

“At least during the winter we had substitute teachers available to us. Now, they are back in college or on placement, where they’re not available to work as substitutes. Even the substitute panel of teachers, which is supposed to provide cover, has been hit by Covid.”

McGorman says the scale of learning loss after three years of disruption is now emerging as a major source of concern.

“We’re seeing it right across the board: they lost out on learning in the curriculum, general knowledge, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, handwriting . . . it’s right across the board. You even see it watching then playing soccer, with legs flailing around the places . . . we really have a job of work to make up those losses.”

Nationally, there appears to be a similar picture.

Páiric Clerkin of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network says that while Covid is not making headlines, the disruption in schools is very real.

“Schools are under the exact same pressure as were during the height of the crisis,” says Clerkin.

The exact scale of learning loss in Irish schools had yet to be quantified. Results of last year’s standardised tests at primary level – due later this year – should give the first sense of how far children are lagging behind.

However, research elsewhere gives a clue over the scale of losses. In the UK, a survey of teachers and school leaders found that students were roughly three months behind by last July. The Office for Standards in Education found that younger students had regressed to the point where some forgot how to hold a pencil.

Learning losses

In the Netherlands, an April 2021 study found that primary school students performed on average 20 per cent worse on tests than the equivalent cohorts had for the three years before the pandemic. Among students from disadvantaged families, learning losses tended to be even greater, up to 60 per cent larger than for the general population.

Both countries have spent billions on tutoring, counselling and summer programmes for children, but that extra support has not yet caught them up. Disadvantaged students and those with special needs have fared worst.

In Ireland, Minister for Education Nora Foley has pointed to the Covid Learning and Support Scheme which aims to help schools mitigate the adverse impacts of Covid-19 on student learning loss.

She said up to €52 million in extra teaching hours for schools has been made available during the current school year. Enhanced allocations are provided for schools with Deis, or disadvantaged, status.

McGorman, however, says his school has been unable to access extra teaching hours due to a crisis in substitution cover.

“Any substitutes staff we can get our hands on are being used to plug holes. We just don’t have access to teaches to run it,” he says.

He is unsure if the school will be able to bank the hours it was entitled to, or if the school will lose them at the end of the academic year.

“What we really need is longer-term planning. All these initiatives are happening too late, and then we can’t find the teaching staff to run them.”