Sharp increase in inequality in education in times of the COVID-19-pandemic

PLoS One. 2022 Feb 2;17(2):e0261114. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261114. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The COVID-19-pandemic forced many countries to close schools abruptly in the spring of 2020. These school closures and the subsequent period of distance learning has led to concerns about increasing inequality in education, as children from lower-educated and poorer families have less access to (additional) resources at home. This study analyzes differences in declines in learning gains in primary education in the Netherlands for reading, spelling and math, using rich data on standardized test scores and register data on student and parental background for almost 300,000 unique students. The results show large inequalities in the learning loss based on parental education and parental income, on top of already existing inequalities. The results call for a national focus on interventions specifically targeting vulnerable students.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Academic Failure / trends
  • Academic Success
  • COVID-19 / psychology
  • Child
  • Education, Distance / trends*
  • Educational Status
  • History, 21st Century
  • Humans
  • Income
  • Learning
  • Netherlands
  • Pandemics
  • Parents
  • SARS-CoV-2 / pathogenicity
  • School Teachers
  • Schools / trends
  • Socioeconomic Factors / history*
  • Students
  • Teaching / trends*

Grants and funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, https://www.zonmw.nl/nl/) (project 10430 03201 0014). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Grant acquired by CH, RK, TP-B, RvdV, IdW.