The spread of Covid-19 resulted in direct and indirect impacts on education, widening the already existing educational divide. Online classrooms have replaced off-line classrooms across the country, at least some of the time. Students in lockdowns have varied experiences according to which their learning is or can be supported by their families and home environments due to unequal resources. Plenty of research has shown that children’s social class background is one of the most significant predictors of their educational success. Performance gaps by social class emerge early on and rarely narrow as children progress in education. Families with children with special educational needs (SEN) and other vulnerable groups (migrants and asylum seekers) are also likely to have faced challenges, especially at a time of reduced or discontinued support. In Ireland, children of parents with lower levels of education were significantly less likely to report receiving resources from their teacher, use educational apps and use a specific educational TV hub. Abrupt transfer to online teaching has also unveiled variation between teachers regarding their skills and confidence in providing online learning opportunities. In Ireland, there has been a variation between schools with more disadvantaged student intakes and other schools in access to digital devices, and differences between urban and rural areas in the availability of high-speed broadband. The factors impacting social climate in homes would influence the lives and well-being of children and young people and may impact their educational engagement indirectly. Structural inequalities are also evident in the extent and type of school-parent interactions at the time of the pandemic. The aim of this panel is to demonstrate how COVID-19 is impacting students from different social groups, discuss possible measures to help in narrowing the ‘learning divide’ between students and preventing long-term educational inequality in the context of COVID-19. The spread of Covid-19 resulted in direct and indirect impacts on education, widening the already existing educational divide. 

SPEAKERS: 

Eamonn Carroll, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ESRI. 

Delma Byrne, Associate Professor of Sociology ad Education at Maynooth University. 

Deirdre McGillicuddy, Assistant Professor of Education, focusing on childhood policy and practice, development and intercultural education, sociology of childhood and children’s rights & citizenship at UCD. 

Dr Joe Travers, associate professor and the first Head of School of Inclusive and Special Education in Dublin City University (DCU) Institute of Educatio