COVID19 Pandemic and Learning Loss

Background:

The pandemic has disrupted schooling across the world, with  potentially devastating long-term consequences for children’s learning  and life outcomes. School close

ures have restricted learning activities  to each individual homes, and limited digital infrastructure and  parent’s inexperience in supporting children’s learning is almost  certain to result in learning loss.

However, the effect is unlikely to have affected everyone equally.  Children from disadvantaged background are likely to have suffered more  from the closures. Given the financial strain that COVID19 has afflicted  to the government and the public, it is important to identify policies  that could effectively mitigate the long-term consequences of the  impact, particularly for those who are most affected, who are also most  likely to not receive sufficient support after school have reopened.

To achieve this, we need to further our understanding beyond the  scale of the impact of COVID19 on learning. Identifying the factors that  have influenced differences in learning outcomes during the pandemic  will strengthen policymaking using research-based evidence.

Objective:

This research has a twofold aim. The first is to measure the scale of  learning loss that is caused by the disruption during the COVID19  Pandemic. Second is to identify the factors that have influenced the  difference in the scale of learning loss between different groups,  including ones who were exposed to different policies.

Methodology: 

This research is conducted using primary data, both that have been  collected before this research began from past RISE studies, and one  that is collected during. There are two main information types that is  going to be collected during the study: 1. Student learning assessment  results to measure learning outcomes between students, collected  periodically and 2. Principal and parent’s survey to obtain information  on the different behaviours and policies each child is exposed to,  collected once during school closures, and once after school have  reopened.

The two data will be analysed together to potentially identify the  effect of each factors and policies on learning outcomes during the  pandemic.