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Research on homeschooling during the Covid-19 pandemic has identified a number of problems experienced by both children and parents earlier this year.
Many students felt that they learned less, were more anxious, and had lower levels of motivation while studying at home.
The study also shows that engagement with education waned in the weeks after schools closed in mid-March.
The research, conducted by the NUI Galway School of Education, was carried out over a two-month period in the summer. It collected responses from more than 2,500 parents and more than 1,000 primary and second level students.
Concerns about access to technology necessary for learning and the impact of not seeing friends were also identified.
From the parents’ perspective, the difficulty of reconciling work and educational responsibilities was highlighted as a major problem. The problem is particularly serious for families with several children.
However, a small number of parents felt that their children had benefited from having individual supports and were able to learn new or different things at home.
The need for children to return to school full-time was a prominent theme in parental responses, and academic, social, and mental health concerns were raised. In general, the students themselves were also positive about going back to school.
The researchers say the Department of Education would need to provide more consistency and direction if homeschooling were to resume at some point in the future.
The report provides interesting data regarding the average time of home schooling each day. Elementary school children averaged 2.2 hours a day, and high school students logged 3.6 hours.
Younger children reported that they enjoy extracurricular activities and spend more time with their families. For second-level students, the freedom to sleep late and be able to follow their own schedule were at the top of the list of benefits.
More than 40% of parents who had children in Irish language schools said that their command of Irish affected the support they could provide at home.
The report’s authors say that, ideally, schools should remain open full-time to protect students’ academic progress and mental health, as well as the general well-being of parents.
They also point to the need for more research on the experiences of ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic groups.
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