School Students Have Lost Half a Year of Learning Through the Pandemic

Since March 2020, the coronavirus has affected not only everyday life but also the entire school system. Has the frequent alternation between remote and face-to-face teaching with different hybrid variants had an impact on the acquisition of skills by school children? A research team from the Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS) at TU Dortmund University has explored this question and focused specifically on reading – a competence fundamental to educational processes. To do so, the team used representative data from a school panel study with over 4,000 children in 2016 and 2021 at 111 selected elementary schools in Germany.

Reading literacy considerably lower

The data indicate that with an average of 980 points the reading literacy of the children in 2021 was significantly lower than it was in 2016 with 1,000 points. At the time of the surveys, the school students had over a year of pandemic-related restrictions behind them. “If we express this in terms of years of learning, the children are on average missing about six months. If the change in the composition of the student body is taken into account, the gap narrows slightly, but the significant decline in average reading literacy remains nevertheless,” explains co-study leader Dr. Ulrich Ludewig from the Center for Research on Education and School Development.

The results show that the percentage of elementary school students who are good or very good at reading decreased by about seven percent to 37 percent compared to 2016. By contrast, the percentage of those who have problems with reading and text comprehension increased by six percent to 28 percent. “As reading is a core skill, this outcome also has an impact on other school subjects,” stresses Professor McElvany.

Competence level in different groups of school students has dropped

The decrease in the average competence level applies for all the groups of school children examined. Although girls on average continued to be better at reading than boys, the average reading level of both groups dropped. The picture is similar when looking at sociocultural background: Children from families with more than 100 books at home can on average read better than ones with less books, but the average reading literacy of both groups was lower than in 2016 to a similar degree.

With 27 points, children with poor learning conditions at home – such as no desk of their own and no internet access – have on average lost more than children with good learning conditions (16 points). If a comparison is then drawn between the groups of elementary school children with and without a migrant background, then generally speaking the reading literacy of children with a migrant background has suffered more under the pandemic. It is not possible to validate the result statistically against coincidence, but the figures describe a significant increase in the difference in average reading performance: Were children who were born abroad 46 points behind children born in Germany in 2016, this difference in 2021 has grown to an average of 63 points, equivalent to about 1.5 years of learning.

Alarming result

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