A recent study by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and reported by the BBC, suggests that those primary-school children who are eligible for free school meals have fallen behind their classmates in mathematics since the first lockdown in 2020. This is yet another pointer to the digital divide and the learning gap between the well off and the poor, which is affecting maths more than reading. This latest research highlights the considerable difference in terms of what teachers and schools have done in reaction to the disruption with “23% of teachers surveyed reported phoning pupils at least once a week, while 37% never called them and 24% of schools in the study provided video lessons, while the remaining 76% did not”. What is now needed everywhere in the world is a comprehensive plan to try and give children various options to recover lost learning as quickly as possible. This, in itself, is a major task, with no one solution that will suit all situations, so there has to be flexibility and, above all, financial support and dedication to make this a reality after the planning from central governments.
