The Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 on Education: A Focus on Students’ Enrollment and Attainment
Claudia Nicoleta Paun, ASE Bucharest- Romania (Academia de Stiinte Economice) (Romania)
Abstract
The global COVID-19 pandemic caused wide disruptions in most sectors: health, aviation, retail, leisure, education, etc. This study will focus on the impact of the pandemic on the education system in the long run. This work will analyze by comparison the students’ academic results before and after the lockdowns. The findings will show that the pandemic had a destructive effect on learning. The schooling system worldwide was transformed immediately from physical to digital learning. Students, teachers, and parents had to adapt to online education using different tools and platforms to stop the spread of the virus. Moreover, the shift had happened in a time record, while some teachers were still trained in new pedagogical and digital skills. For more than two years, all stakeholders compromised with the new hybrid learning format. Nowadays, after the official end of the pandemic, it is time to analyze the effectiveness of the method applied, the academic results of the students, and the impact in the long run. Unfortunately, studies proved that students have a deficit in mathematical skills, and not only. The primary and elementary students appear to have suffered the most, compared to high school and college level students. This result implies that additional effort should be made to help students catch up with the gaps in order to avoid negative long-term consequences for them and the future leaders of society.
Keyword: Covid-19, pandemic, education, the future generation, society