Internet access is a double-edged sword. It is a source of information, entertainment and a vehicle for communication. However, as reported in the Guardian, a study by Internet Matters, an online safety body, the most vulnerable children in the UK are up to “seven times more likely to come to harm online than their peers”.…
There have been numerous proposals the world-over for ways to try and recuperate some of the lost time over the past year due to schools being closed. The Biden administration in the US has come up with a logical plan and are prepared to put billions of dollars into this scheme. According to the NYTimes…
In many parts of the world schools have been closed since March 2020. Teachers have had a lot of extra work and strain learning about the technology required and how to deliver effective classes online. It is quite remarkable that now, after putting themselves and students in the US through a difficult period of learning…
In an apparent knee-jerk reaction to rising health in children concerns, the Ministry of Education of the Chinese government has recently banned children from using their mobile phones while in school: a situation similar to France. From now on written parental consent will be required. This action has been prompted by the increasing allegations of…
The enforced greater usage of technology in the day to day learning process is starting to show some downsides. As this article in The Telegraph points out that there has been a massive increase in the usage of screens with one UK study revealing that “three quarters said their child was now looking at a…
The US has recently been showing a rather uglier side to its image of the bastion of democracy and home of the brave. Political issues aside, its handling of the pandemic has not been good. In this recent article from the NYTimes it is asserted that “remote learning is a disaster, especially for disadvantaged students”. …
In a change from the usual comments about Education and Covid, we are sharing this McKinsey article on how Australia set out in 2018 to make their education system world-class by 2028. This project, with its goal to improve schools, “leveraged student and school data to develop differentiated improvement strategies” creating an improvement-planning tool kit…
In the UK (although the figure in other countries is likely to be similar) according to an article in the Telegraph, a survey by Sutton Trust (a social mobility charity) showed that only 59% of children in low-income households had access to a device for online learning. Similarly, 26% “of youngsters from disadvantaged households are…
A curious article from the Wall Street Journal about effects of the pandemic on working parents. Some numbers have been crunched and conclusions made about a correlation which is not mutually exclusive. In a Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economics of Recovery Study around 47% of parents who had children learning entirely remotely or in a hybrid format…
We have written articles about the effects of Social Media in previous posts, and this article from the Telegraph bears out the issues. According to research from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) the number of girls unhappy with their appearance doubles by the time they reach 14 years of age due to “heavy social media…