Thread by @CatieZee

Some people in NZ want to blame lockdowns for the claim that children across the country are 1-2 years behind.

When the first lockdown began on 26/3/20, school holidays began immediately. When the holiday ended, there were just 9 days online learning until level 3 on 28/4. 1/

Although schools reopened on 28/4, many families opted to continue online learning until the move to level 2 on 14/5. That's a total of 22 days online learning in 2020, 13 days of which were by choice. 2/
rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

The second time the whole country went into lockdown for an extended period was on 18/8/21. By 9/9/21, everywhere except Auckland had moved back to level 2 and children were back at school, having missed 16 days. 3/
rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

So, that's 22 days in 2020 and 16 days in 2021 of schools moving to online learning and allegedly resulting in children being 1-2 years behind.

Somehow, I don't think that's the reason. 4/

I want to acknowledge that lockdown was very hard for some families, and that Auckland was in lockdown for a lot longer in 2021. I am not saying this did not have an impact on children. But being at home with your family in most cases would not lead to being behind by 1-2 yrs. 5/

Claim about impact of lockdown is from this article.
end

nzherald.co.nz/nz/education-c…

Another interesting fact about school attendance: attendance was better in 2020 and 2021 than 2019. It was only after students (and teachers!) started getting sick that attendance went down.

Another interesting fact about lockdown: students were more positive about their households during lockdown than after.
evidence.ero.govt.nz/documents/the-…