Parents and caregivers unhappy with Covid-induced homeschooling – VoxEurop

School closures are a common measure implemented by governments all around the world to fight the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The trend towards remote and digital learning, which had already started before the pandemic, was greatly accelerated due to the inability of attending schools in person. Eurofound, the agency of the European Union for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, conducted a series of online surveys across the 27 member states of the European Union, in order to assess the level of satisfaction with remote learning and the support provided to it, wether by teachers or in terms of studying materials provided to students.

? On youth in the Covid-19 era :

1. Students and the pandemic: a generation sacrificed?
2. Young people and Covid-19: how has the pandemic affected their mental health?
3. Young people and Covid-19: villains or victims?
4. Oliver Ertzschied: ‘What worries me the most is that students lose hope and give up’

The results have then been published in January in the report “Education, healthcare and housing: How access changed for children and families in 2020”. It was noted how online learning had increased across all levels of education during the pandemic, but in particular in early childhood education and care (ECEC), that is young people going through primary or secondary levels of education.

The survey round conducted in July 2020 asked parents and legal guardians what their opinion is regarding distance learning. Overall, most respondents were dissatisfied and were not keen on repeating the experience in the future. It is worth noting that most households reported having or being provided with the material means necessary to engage in distance learning, therefore the dissatisfaction reported is not due to a lack of means but rather an aversion towards distance learning in itself.

The same can be said of the support received by teachers. Except for when asked about support provided live, whose low score could be attributed to the rapid shift to distance learning, with little time for teachers to readjust, the responses to the other two questions were mostly positive.

It is clear by now that parents and guardians are dissatisfied with distanc…