Assessing the Impact of School Closures on Social Inequality

Blog Editor’s Note

By Barbara Gornik, Science and Research Centre Koper

The idea that the coronavirus is an equal opportunity killer must be killed itself, wrote Charles M. Blow, opinion columnist for the New York Times, in his article on the privileges of social distancing. He argued that Covid-19 does not affect all people in the same way and to the same extent. Joining Blow in his view, this post reflects on that, metaphorically speaking, it is actually equal opportunity that this virus kills.

The global Covid -19 pandemic has dramatically changed the routines of our daily lives. After schools across Europe came to an effective standstill during the virus outbreak in March 2020, most children had to continue their educational activities through distance learning. Political authorities struggled to regulate the situation and introduced different approaches to alternative educational arrangements; online platforms were the most popular tool, while some also relied on educational packages, radio education and educational television (Schleicher, 2020; Schleicher and Reimers 2020). The situation was particularly challenging in the first weeks of school closure, when school staff were largely unprepared to teach online.

It cannot be neglected that the measures taken by national governments across Europe have affected all children. Nevertheless, these measures had a different impact on different social groups. Social closure has shown that for migrant children, schools are among the most important factors of socialisation, pathways to integration and places that equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary for their present and future participation and inclusion in society. While the negative consequences of school closure, which affected all children, were related to disruption of learning and opportunities for peer socialisation, growth and development, migrant children were further affected by the discontinuation of existing integration measures, such as additional language teaching, preparatory classes, learning support and peer learning.

Although the right to education is a universal right of children – as such it requires states to take structural and institutional measures to ensure non-discrimination in equal access (and quality) to education – the Covid-19 pandemic made the enjoyment of this right dependent on the personal skills, abilities, resources and structural determinants of the individual, related to his or her social class, economic status and ethnic background (e.g. language skills, parental support, access to technical equipment and broadband infrastructure). In the case of migrant children, school closure boosted conditions of inequality, particularly in terms of access to education, quality of education, educational outcomes and learning opportunities.

Linguistic constraints proved to be extremely important in overcoming the inequality for migrant children. Language barriers affected their ability to follow school subjects online, as all information, whether oral or written, was often given in the language of the host society. Consequently, their academic motivation often declined. Online interaction also offered them fewer opportunities to improve their language skills and to interact socially in the language of the host society. The school closure has highlighted the fact that personal interactions in the educational environment are also crucial for migrant learners because they have more opportunities to learn the ‘academic language’ that is essential for raising migrants’ achievement levels and reducing the risk of early school dropout (Noorani et al. 2019).

During school closure, the digital literacy of the individual learner also proved to be a risk factor of falling behind in the learning process. As skilled and experienced as young generations are when it comes to social media, smartphones and technology, teachers reported that all children, especially younger learners, lack basic computer skills. The digital divide between native and migrant learners, already identified in studies (e.g. Colucci et al., 2017), suggests that migrant learners have a greater digital literacy gap than ethnic majority learners. In relation to this, some authors (e.g. Moore et al., 2018) argue that the digital skills gap has the potential to increase inequalities between learners within the educational environment.

In the context of Covid-19, the right to education has also become largely dependent on the ability of parents to support their children in their education. Migrant learners have often been insufficiently supported by parents who, being over-represented among essential workers, may not be able to work from home, while some migrant parents have not been able to support their children because they themselves are new to the local language, have insufficient command of the language of instruction, are unfamiliar with educational standards and requirements, etc.

In addition, some migrant children, e.g. those living in asylum centres, refugee camps or inadequate housing conditions, had difficulties in accessing technical equipment and broadband infrastructure and in finding a quiet place to study. In these circumstances, they were faced with unequal conditions in online learning and were more at risk of falling behind in school subjects and achieving lower academic results.

The rapid transition to online teaching and communication, together with the lack of experience with distance education and the lack of government guidance on educational methods and standards, was accompanied by the inability of teachers to respond to the specific needs of migrants. Some governments provided additional support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g. provision of technical equipment, material support), but there was a widespread lack of a structural approach and instructions from governments on how to ensure inclusive education with migrant learners.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, migrant children were suffering from inequalities compared to native students in many aspects. For example, studies have confirmed that migrant children, for various reasons, generally have higher rates of early school dropout, lower academic achievement among the student population and enrol in less demanding high school programmes (Huttova, et al. 2010; Heckman 2008; Stanat and Christensen 2007, OECD, 2015). It is expected however, that the pandemic will exacerbate these discrepancies and, in the long run, the consequences of school closure for learners with a migrant background may be more severe.

In the given context, migrant children should be approached according to the principle of formal equality, which means that all children are equal and should be treated equally, and the principle of substantive equality, which requires different treatment of migrant children in order to remove barriers that prevent them from equal inclusion and participation. The key question for educators and policy makers in this respect is what additional measures need to be taken to remove the barriers to promote equal opportunities and conditions in education. In this view, it is important to note that the inequality of migrant children is not the cause of their deficiencies but rather the result of the way schools and society operate.