Negative impact of home schooling laid bare
New report finds adults’ mental health and wellbeing have suffered
THE impact of home schooling on everyday life has been revealed by experts at Stranmillis University, with over 80% of parents reporting a negative impact ontheirownmentalhealthand wellbeing due to the pressures of teaching their own children.
Some 67% said they had experienced a negative impact on their physical health and wellbeing, research from the College’s Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (Creu)hasshown.
The publication of findings from Stranmillis comes after the majority of pupils have returned to classrooms, and suggests parents will be happy to hand education back to the experts.
Some 51% of parents/carers surveyed felt the current lockdown had resulted in the worsening of their children’s mental health and wellbeing, compared to 31% in 2020.
But the survey revealed some good news, with 65% of parents saying the quality of learning resources was better or much better than during the first closure.
And the number of parents who reported their child’s school had engaged in live online teaching has doubled since 2020.
Parents with higher levels of education feel more confident in homeschooling and children from low-income homes continuedtohavemorerestrictedaccess to the digital resources required for online learning.
“The findings from our initial analysis confirm continued inequities of digital access, varying levels of parental confidence in home schooling, considerable pressures faced by parents as they juggled work and home schooling commitments, and resulting negative consequences for children’s learning and development as well as their mental and physical health and wellbeing,” said CREU Director Dr Noel Purdy.
“Once again, children from wealthier homes with better educated parents are more likely to have better digital access to their learning resources, are more likely to have the confident support of their parents to hand, and are more likely to have transitioned well to post-primary school.
“There seems little doubt that this second period of homeschooling has further exacerbated existing inequalities in our education system and in our society more generally.”
Dr Purdy said that as children resume face-to-face learning “it is clear that parents will be enormously relieved, but also exhausted in many cases after weeks of juggling both home schooling and working either at home or outside the home”.
He said this is something which employers must take into account as they seek to support staff.
“Parents are, in the main, not trained educators and have had to learn fast, negotiating unfamiliar learning platforms, struggling to understand subjects they never thought they’d need to teach, and trying to find time to run their house and attend to their own mental and physical health. We believe the findings will help towards a better understanding of the diversity of experience and help provide more tailored support as children return to face-to-face learning,” he added.