Students’ skills playing catchup 3 years after end of COVID-19 as global health emergency

The long-term disruptions caused by COVID-19 are still affecting Maritime students.

Three years ago, the World Health Organization declared an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency, but its effects are still lingering in many places, including the classroom.

Lorelei Burgess with Oxford Learning in Halifax sees it first-hand in mostly junior high students, who were in elementary school when the pandemic hit.

She says their foundational skills fell behind.

“The reading, writing, spelling, math; those were the core concepts that were significantly impacted. And we do continue to see that today,” says Burgess. “They’re not as willing to kind of put themselves out there and try new things. That lack of confidence, the lack of self-esteem has really perpetuated since that time.

“Social skills are definitely lacking for many kids. And it’s something that I think we were sort of warned about early on, but we didn’t maybe consider that six years down the road we would still be dealing with these things. But how kids feel in the classroom has a significant impact on performance.”

Students aren’t the only ones playing catchup. Burgess says teachers have also been forced to adapt.

“One the biggest things that teachers are seeing right now is a wider gap in learning differences within the classroom,” Burgess says.

“It’s going to be an ongoing process. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to be fixed overnight. It’s a struggle for classroom teachers, for parents, but also for kids because they are missing out on some of those fundamental skills that they need in order to be successful.”