Coronavirus kept Victorian students out of class. This is what we know about long-term effects of school closures

By ITS Education Asia

Here is a worrying article from ABC News in Australia reporting on some of the longer term effects of school closures on children.

Closing schools has been one response around the world to try to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The Ebola epidemic occurred in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — countries vastly different to Australia in terms of culture, politics and economics.

But that crisis resulted in a policy response that is now very familiar to Australians: school closures. And we can still learn some things, albeit with caveats.

The effects outlined include

·         More disadvantaged kids may drop out

·         Kids may have less access to food

·         It may affect future earnings

The Lancet has published two recent studies that document the mental health effects of closures, which the authors say can have serious long-term repercussions.

There is little in way of good news from the article or the linked to reports published in the Lancet.  We can all just hope that a vaccine will be released soon and we can start to put the pandemic behind us.

 

 

 

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