CUSP Highlights Risk Of Schoolchildren Falling Behind Due To COVID Restrictions And "Unsatisfactory" Home Learning
A recently formed pressure group, the Civil Union of Students and Parents (CUSP), has today highlighted the risk of schoolchildren falling behind in their education due to “unsatisfactory” online learning content and the disruption caused by periods of isolation due to outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools.
A statement from CUSP set out in detail these concerns:
“The statutory right to an effective education is not just a privilege, it is a child’s human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convent of Economic and Social Rights and articles 28 and 29 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Deprivation of education should be taken extremely seriously. It encompasses a right to an effective education, access to educational institutions and to obtain official recognition when studies are completed.
“When the pandemic was declared in March 2020 it was expected that there would be some temporary exclusion to education to preserve the health and wellbeing of pupils, staff and the wider community. It was understood that the infrastructures were not yet in place to deliver curriculum based online learning.
Seesaw was implemented, which put pressure on parents to provide electronic equipment and invest time to help them complete tasks. It is the general feeling that the input Seesaw required from parents to complete tasks, who continued to work or had multiple children or insufficient ability to provide this support, did not balance with the unsatisfactory content provided for a student’s educational skills and knowledge.
“It is a matter of grave concern that six months down the line, little provision has been made to set up educational systems with contingency capacities to mitigate and manage failures and risk. Children being sent home from first schools to isolate after an outbreak are being sent back to Seesaw. When this happens again and again during the winter months where does this leave our children?
"We are forgetting the fundamental rights children have, to be in school and the huge disparity of education for those children attending local state schools. Private schools have continued curriculum-based online learning and, once again, the right that children have to not be discriminated against by circumstance, is being infringed.
“We are failing our youth who will, after all, be competing with these students and those at UK schools in their exams. Time will not stop for our GCSE and A level students, the ones in the most vital part of their education- the build-up of years of work. What about those who are vulnerable and need to continue to isolate for their or their family members health and safety?
"Has their journey ended?
"How are vulnerable or disabled children safeguarded? Are those who are missing out on specialist skills when forced to stay at home going to be given their rights to care and support to live an independent life provided in art 23 of the UNRC?
“It is safe to say that after 6 months, any acceptable excuses of lack of planning have run out.
“We want innovation through technology and a long-term strategy that will maintain access to learning, to retain skills and knowledge through remote, alternative or distance learning programmes when needed. We want mandatory catch up and remedial period structures that are clearly communicated to students and parents. We demand access to the curriculum for our children and we refuse to let them fall behind the rest of the world through lack of initiative.
"Civil society plays a crucial role in promoting the right to education and holds the state accountable for its obligations and CUSP wants opportunity of education for all.”
