A pupil’s perspective of the pandemic
THEY HAVE often been spoken about during the COVID-19 pandemic, but an education watchdog heard directly from young people about how they had been affected by it.
Calderdale Youth Council’s response to COVID and education showed that contrary to popular perception of young people being ultra technology savvy, they valued and missed face to face teaching, they were worried about gaps in their learning caused by the pandemic to their education, they felt loneliness and it impacted on their mental health.
Chair of Calderdale Council’s Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Board, Coun Colin Raistrick, said the report provided real food for thought.
It was presented by Calderdale’s Member of the Youth Parliament, Praneetha Bharath, who said coping with the changes had been harder for some than others.
The report said this involved students being given prepared and targeted work to take home if they had to isolate, but they were concerned they had missed “loads” of coursework and areas of curriculum that might feature in their exams.
Praneetha said there was an assumption that families had computers and wi-fi but this was not always true.
Other issues included children being unable to work at home because they had caring responsibilities for parents or siblings.
Mental health was a key issue, particularly the basic need to talk to somebody, a sense of aloneness and anxiety.