There is no doubt that COVID-19 has significantly impacted our lives, including schools and education. Temporary closures of factors outside school systems affect schools’ capacity to meet students’ needs and support academic achievement. For example, elementary schools can only successfully deliver online education if children have an or they have a reliable internet connection.
There is that underscores the importance of particular as well as policies that align with the most effective education systems globally.
These areas include investing in quality early childhood education, providing adequate mental health and technology support to benefit children in primary and secondary school and funding for post-secondary students. Policy in all these areas can be considered policies. According to UNICEF, such policy reduces “the lifelong consequences of poverty and exclusion.”
Early childhood education
A national child-care strategy has been for some time. Yet despite its detractors, we do know that — where all children under the school age are provided with the option of early childhood education and care — are consistently for high student achievement and post-secondary attendance.
In general, , such as paid maternity/paternity leave and subsidized or free early childhood education, recoup these initial investments through a better-educated citizenry. They also tend to have between the highest and lowest performing students, or are trending in a positive direction — a result that bodes well for policymakers interested in promoting equity.
Mental health, technology infrastructure
COVID-19 has accentuated the challenges that many students face in kindergarten to Grade 12. The shift to and the increased need for have impacted children and families.
Added to this, those children who lack access to or a at home face even further unprecedented hardships.
Not surprisingly, these types of challenges are exacerbated for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Their families require direct .
In Canada, power over social policy is divided between the federal and provincial governments, but . They provide the infrastructure that ensures that students and their families have an opportunity to succeed: social housing, emergency shelters, subsidized child care, transit passes, and library and recreation services.
Some municipalities have advocated for issues around , , and for smaller communities, and helped put these on the national agenda.
Higher education
Canada boasts one of the highest post-secondary enrolment rates in the world. Indeed, the proportion of adults aged 25 to 64 who completed college or university .
While these results should be celebrated, the ongoing challenges posed by COVID-19 and the child , which has increased incrementally between 2015 and 2018, should cause urgent concern. These factors will directly threaten the prospect of university and college attendance for students from lower socio-economic homes and families.
Even prior to the pandemic, the for Canadian universities and colleges over the last decade has resulted in increased costs and , and deterred many students from pursuing a post-secondary education. The latter is in stark contrast to Nordic countries such as Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland – where post-secondary education is free or at a low cost. As a consequence, these countries are seen as .
While many may bemoan tax dollars being used to fund post-secondary students, the economic and social benefits are clearly justified – particularly given the increasing human capital demands of a knowledge economy.
The negative effects of reduced government funding have been growing for some time in Canada. We must continually monitor and address how financial challenges exacerbated by COVID-19 in the long-term affect post-secondary education.
It is essential for governments to adopt effective policies far beyond schooling to ensure that the most vulnerable student populations are given a realistic opportunity to excel from kindergarten to Grade 12 and in post-secondary education settings.
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Suggested citation: Louis Volante, Livianna Tossutti, Don A. Klinger and Siegel Melissa. "Student Achievement Depends on Reducing Poverty Now and After COVID-19," 糖心Vlog破解版, 糖心Vlog破解版 Centre, 糖心Vlog破解版-MERIT, 2021-05-14, /article/student-achievement-depends-reducing-poverty-now-and-after-covid-19.
