Children who attended the second year of preschool in 2020, with nine months of remote activities due to the covid-19 pandemic, lost 6 to 7 months of learning in language and mathematics compared to those who experienced the same period of preschool -school in 2019, with face-to-face teaching. The data on the learning pace of children before, during and after the pandemic also shows that those who attended the second year of preschool in 2022, with the return of face-to-face activities, gained 1 to 2 months, compared to students from the same school year in 2019. The information is from the study Recomposition of learning and educational inequalities after the covid-19 pandemic: a study in Sobral/CE, produced by researchers from the Laboratory for Research in Educational Opportunities at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro January (LaPOpE). Although the two groups of children (2020 and 2022) experienced at least part of preschool with remote teaching, the results suggest that the actions taken by the education network to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic had an effect on the children who completed the stage in 2022. Supported by the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation, the survey estimated the effects of the pandemic in the short and medium term and brings unprecedented evidence on the recovery of learning, with emphasis on the quality of education offered. To arrive at the results, the study followed the development of 1,364 children enrolled in the municipal public network of Sobral (CE), who attended the second year of preschool between 2019 and 2022. The research observed that the group of children who experienced the second preschool year in 2020 – with the longest period remotely – learned the equivalent of 39% in language and 48% in mathematics, compared to the person who attended this stage in 2019, in person. The group that finished preschool in 2022 learned the equivalent of 111% in language and 115% in mathematics, compared to the group that attended the second year of the stage in 2019. According to the researchers, the results show the effects of reopening schools on learning rhythms. Children in the 2020 group, for example, who experienced the first year of preschool in person, suffered with the interruption of face-to-face activities and the remote offer at the conclusion of the educational stage. According to Mariane Koslinski, a researcher at LaPOpE and one of those responsible for the study, the uncertainties of the pandemic, the interruptions in activities, in person or not, and the entire period of adaptation to the remote model directly impacted the learning pace of these children, who had less learning those who completed the stage in 2019. The researcher highlighted, however, that the recovery of the learning pace of children who completed early childhood education in 2022 draws even more attention. “It is curious because, like the children in the 2020 group, those from last year also lived part of the stage in the remote regime”, said Mariane, in a note. “What the results indicate is that, probably, the actions of the Sobral education network were important in mitigating the effects of the pandemic and accelerating the pace of development of these children”, she added. Among the actions, the researcher highlighted active search programs, expansion of the full-time offer and the implementation of a new curriculum for Early Childhood Education in line with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC). The researchers also emphasize that the results of the study should not be interpreted as a picture of what happened in the rest of the country. “The lack of national coordination in the years of the pandemic generated an extremely challenging scenario for municipal managers and the responses to the challenges of the pandemic were very uneven and inconsistent when comparing states and municipalities across the country”. For the manager of Applied Knowledge and specialist in early childhood education at the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation, Beatriz Abuchaim, the challenge at this moment goes beyond the educational spheres. “Various evidence shows that the pandemic has unequally affected families in terms of income, access to services and support networks. All of this has had an impact on the development and learning of children,” said Beatriz, in a statement. “In this sense, the actions must be integrated and contemplate different spheres and levels of government. Responsibility for setting up this strategy cannot be held solely by the area of education,” she added. Recommendations The researchers present a series of recommendations for managers at different levels in order to mitigate the problems mentioned. For the Ministry of Education, it is recommended that there be a leading role in the preparation of a national learning recovery plan with the allocation of resources and technical support to guide the actions of state and municipal education departments. The state departments of education must, among other points, provide technical and financial support for municipalities to prepare and implement their strategies. The municipal education departments, in turn, must implement programs to actively search for children with a focus on early childhood education and prepare diagnoses on the effects of the pandemic on the development of children and on school dropout and dropout rates. Principals and teachers can promote greater integration between families and schools by incorporating successful family communication strategies used during the pandemic.
Agência Brasil
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