Stage 4 lockdowns: Kids could lose year of school under homeschooling

The interruptions to a child’s education from COVID-19 could have a devastating effect on learning.

I received a phone call from my kids’ school yesterday that highlighted just how much COVID-19 has affected kids who were meant to be enjoying their first year of school.

It’s fair to say that while a great many of us have struggled these last few months, the real casualties of lockdown are kindergarten kids.

My daughter, Olivia, is in kindy this year (also known as prep or foundation in other states), and since the school is unable to hold parent-teacher meetings, they’re offering phone calls to parents of those who need some additional attention. Of which Olivia is one.

A sadness washed over me when I pictured my daughter, excited to take a pencil and notepad to school to “play with” at lunch. She loves learning but I know she’s behind on so many levels.

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Claire Haiek’s kids Samuel, 12, Charlie, 10, and Olivia, 5, have all been affected by lockdown but Olivia has felt it the most. Picture: Supplied.

This year, working parents have been tasked with juggling home learning and breaking up fights between siblings while scrambling to keep up with work and the mental load of raising a family during a pandemic.

But the real challenge as a mum of three kids in various stages of schooling is all to do with my kindy kid, who seems to have suffered the most adversity this year.

My older boys, who are in years five and six, were great home learners. They logged on to their learning portal each morning, read the instructions and got their school work out of the way early.

The lure of the PlayStation once all of their school work was finished meant there was no mucking about. They got in, did what they needed to do and were otherwise entertained while I went about my work.

In contrast, trying to help Olivia learn how to read has really taken it out of us both. As a mother, I’ve felt a heavy guilt with every sight word missed. When she wasn’t reading by the end of term two, I began to compare her to her older brothers, and the differences are staggering.

Olivia couldn’t read the instructions to be responsible for her home learning. She required constant hand-holding to do even the simplest of tasks, and my work was interrupted by constant questions like, “What letter next?” followed by “which one now?” and “should I do another finger space?”

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Like many parents, Claire Haiek had the task of working and home schooling simultaneously, which will have an impact on the quality of education. Picture: Supplied.

Research undertaken by World Bank Group predict that such interruptions to a child’s education from COVID-19 could lead to an overall loss of between 0.3 and 0.9 years of schooling.

That’s almost a year of school just gone. This has a flow-on effect, with World Bank estimating close to seven million primary and secondary students globally could drop out due to the income shock of the pandemic.

Future earnings may be reduced, and exclusion and inequality among marginalised and vulnerable groups such as girls, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities will likely be exacerbated.

Home schooling also diminishes the role of teachers. Teachers aren’t just there to guide our kids learning their alphabet and adding up numbers. They guide our children through this important transition in the big world, separate from their parents.

Teachers help our kids to find a balance between following the rules and questioning when those rules deserve to be challenged. They help teach our children vital life skills and lay the foundations for them to foster independence and practise self control. This year our kindy kids have had limited access to these vital role models.

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Olivia is back at school and wrote her first long sentence this week but her first year of school has been completely disrupted. Picture: Supplied.

We’ve also missed the usual chances at socialising with other families within our community. There have been no after school play dates, no birthday parties where the kindy kids usually invite the entire class.

The first year at school is usually where you’ll watch the kids find their place among their peers. I enjoyed watching my boys form their first solid friendship but I’ve not had the chance to see Olivia develop any special friendships or been able to watch her interact among friends in any setting.

Then there’s the people of Victoria who are in their second wave and experiencing it all over again.

Haylee Hobbs, a mum of two from Melbourne, who’s in lockdown and back homeschooling, feels as though her son, Max, who is in prep, has also been missing out on vital socialisation.

“We jump at every opportunity to participate in Zoom catch-ups with friends but it’s just not the same and he seems to only be interested for 30 minutes,” Haylee said. “And 30 minutes once, maybe twice a week, just isn’t enough when they are developing friendship circles in their first year.”

With all the mental health challenges, financial uncertainty and fear surrounding COVID-19, the true victims in all of this have been the little kids. The ones who were meant to start school this year and take off into the exciting world of learning.

Instead, they’ve floundered and struggled, crying out for the structure and education they deserve but can’t hold on to.

Claire Haiek is the parenting producer for Kidspot