Community Project:

Potential Socioeconomic Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Neural Development, Mental Health,
and K-12 Educational Achievement Grace George1 , Janean Dilworth-Bart, PhD1, and Ryan Herringa,
MD, PhD1

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress on some of our most vulnerable youth, likely prolonging
their disadvantages in school. • Stress caused by poverty and the pandemic may interfere with healthy
brain development including executive functioning, memory systems, and emotion regulation. • Low-
SES students are expected to lag behind their high-SES peers. • Policies can combat educational effects:
increased access to online resources, investments in social-emotional health, and increased access to
summer/out-ofschool learning

Iv: Covid Pandemic

DV: Poverty, Stress, Mental health, drop down in educational performance

Where is Technology in their Education? Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on the Education System of
Children from Tribal Communities Pallavi Kanungo

The article highlights the significance of proper technology implementation, usage of computers and
need for computer lab facilities in tribal schools. During the pandemic and in the absence of appropriate
infrastructure, the approaches towards learning remain critical because it challenges the inclusion of
deprived ones in developing nations.

Does the pandemic help us make education more equitable? Pasi Sahlberg1 Received: 18 August
2020 / Accepted: 30 September 2020 / Published online: 31 October 2020 © Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

Everybody agrees that the COVID-19 pandemic is a big disruption in education. It questions many
traditional rules and structures that have organised the work of schools in the past. But not everyone
agrees that the pandemic will eventually change schools. In this article, I narrow the scope of that
question and ask whether the pandemic helps us fix some of the preexisting inequalities that we were
unable, and often unwilling, to improve. I argue that as we think about how education should be
reimagined, it is paramount to continue efforts to make education more inclusive, fairer and equitable
for all
The conclusion is that the pandemic may help make education more equitable if current socio-economic
inequalities are addressed early on; teachers and principals are trusted more in leading schools forward
in the post-pandemic world; and schools and children are supported to become more selfdirected in
leading and learning

Why lockdown and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to increase the social
class achievement gap Sébastien Goudeau 1 ✉, Camille Sanrey 1 , Arnaud Stanczak 2 , Antony
Manstead 3 and Céline Darnon 2 – (2021)

the research discussed in this article suggests that there are good reasons to predict that this period of
school closures will accelerate the reproduction of social inequalities in educational achievement. By
making school learning less dependent on teachers and more dependent on families and digital tools
and resources, school closures are likely to greatly amplify social class inequalities. At a time when many
countries are experiencing second, third or fourth waves of the pandemic, resulting in fresh periods of
local or general lockdowns, systematic efforts to test these predictions are urgently needed along with
steps to reduce the impact of school closures on the social class achievement gap.

In some African countries (for example, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Uganda), the COVID-19
crisis has resulted in learning loss ranging from 6 months to more 1 year107, and this learning loss
appears to be greater for working-class children (that is, those attending no-fee schools) than for
upper/middle-class children - Reddy, V., Soudien, C. & Winnaar, L.

RESEARCH ARTICLE IMPACT OF PANDEMIC COVID-19 ON EDUCATION IN INDIA *Dr. Pravat Kumar Jena

It has enforced the world wide lock down creating very bad effect on the stu schools/colleges and all
educational activities halted in India.

Obj: To enlighten various measures taken by Govt. of India for education sector during this pandemic. 
To highlight various positive impact of COVID-19 on education.  To enlist some negative impacts of
COVID-19 and to put some effective suggestions for continuing education during the pandemic situation

Articles discusses various government schemes such as swayam, swayam prabha, e – PG Pathshala.
Positive impact :

Move towards Blended Learning:

 Rise in use of Learning Management Systems:

 Enhance the use of soft copy of learning material:

 Improvement in collaborative work-

 Rise in online meetings-

 Enhanced Digital Literacy:

 Improved the use of electronic media for sharing information:

 World wide exposure:
 Better time management:
 Demand for Open and Distance Learning (ODL):

Negative Impact :

 Educational activity hampered:

 Impact on employment:
 Unprepared teachers/students for online education
 Reduced global employment opportunity-
 Increased responsibility of parents to educate their wards:
 Loss of nutrition due to school closure:
 Access to digital world:
 Access to global education:
 Payment of Schools, Colleges fee got delayed:
Coonclusion: India is not fully equipped to make education reach all corners of the nation via digital
platforms. The students who aren’t privileged like the others will suffer due to the present choice of
digital platforms. But universities and the government of India are relentlessly trying to come up with a
solution to resolve this problem. The priority should be to utilise digital technology to create an
advantageous position for millions of young students in India. It is need of the hour for the educational
institutions to strengthen their knowledge and Information Technology infrastructure to be ready for
facing COVID-19 like situations.

An Analysis of Pandemic 2020 impacts on Primary, Secondary and College Education in Urban and
Rural India

Meenakshi Paul

paper highlights both positive and negative impacts of COVID on primary, secondary and higher
education. It puts forward the struggles of the rural and urban areas separately to cope up with the
pandemic and discusses the measures taken by Indian Government to provide seamless education in the
country and also provides a set of long-term measures that should be adopted and implemented in the
due course of time to mitigate losses and bridge gaps

Conclusion: But owing to the vast digital divide in India, almost 79% of students were separated from
education as 55,000 villages in India did not have mobile network coverage and in rural India only 4
percent households had access to the internet. If the Indian education system realises the need for
transition to online learning without creating a digital divide, the Centre and state governments must
increase the spending on education to at least 6 percent of GDP. Ironically, the education ministry's
allowance for digital e-learning was reduced to Rs 469 crore in 2020- 21,the year Covid struck-from Rs
604 crore in the previous year. India should develop strategic moves to ensure that each and every child
could get sustainable access to learning during pandemic COVID-19(WHO).
COVID-19 and children's health in the United States: Consideration of physical and social
environments during the pandemic

Author links open overlay panelJose [Link]-LopezaMaryann [Link]-

AlcaladHoward [Link] [Link] behalf of the
International Society for Children's Health and the Environment

The environmental changes due to COVID-19 are overlaid onto existing environmental and social
disparities. This results in disproportionate effects among children in low-income settings and among
populations experiencing the effects of structural racism. This article draws attention to many
environments that should be considered in current and future policy responses to protect children’s
health amid pandemics.

Impact of “e-Learning crack-up” perception on psychological distress among college students during
COVID-19 pandemic: A mediating role of “fear of academic year loss” Najmul Hasan, Yukun Bao⁎

While literature reveals the positive perception of e-Learning, this study examined and assessed the
impact of eLearning crack-up perceptions on psychological distress among college students during
COVID-19 pandemic. Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) was used to evaluate stress symptoms.
This study first conducted an online focus group discussion (OFGD) with the target population to
develop the scale of “e-Learning crack-up” and “fear of academic year loss”. Afterward, a questionnaire
was developed based on OFGD findings. An online survey was conducted amongst college students in
Bangladesh using a purposive sampling technique. Results show that “e-Learning crack-up” perception
has a significant positive impact on student’s psychological distress, and fear of academic year loss is the
crucial factor that is responsible for psychological distress during COVID-19 lockdown

Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on Education Edeh Michael Onyema1* Dr. Nwafor Chika Eucheria2
Dr. Faith Ayobamidele Obafemi 3 Shuvro Sen4 Fyneface Grace Atonye5 Dr. Aabha Sharma6 Alhuseen
Omar Alsayed7

The study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on education. Data were collected through structured
questionnaires administered to 200 respondents that consist of teachers, students, parents, and policy
makers selected from different countries. The collected data were analyzed using STATA/Regression.
The results show that COVID-19 has adverse effects on education including, learning disruptions, and
decreased access to education and research facilities, Job losses and increased student debts. The
findings also show that many educators and students relied on technology to ensure continued learning
online during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, online education was hindered by poor
infrastructures including, network, power, inaccessibility and unavailability issues and poor digital skills.

ONLINE LEARNING DURING LOCKDOWN PERIOD FOR COVID-19 IN INDIA

Dr. Pravat Kumar Jena, May 2020

Pandemics often compel the learners to stay at home for long period of time and obstruct teaching-
learning process. This article emphasizes on how online learning is beneficial during times of crises like
work absences or pandemics. Therefore, some tools and techniques for online learning which can
ensure the continuity of learning are highlighted. Some emerging approaches of Government of India for
online learning are presented. Merits and demerits of online learning platform are also discussed.
Perceptions of learners and educators on Online Learning system during lockdown are pointed

Suggestions: Online learning is not affordable for all including the poor and disadvantaged groups of the
society. So necessary steps should be taken by Government/ educational institutions to minimise this
gap between privileged and unprivileged learners. Learners and educators must be familiar with Web-
based interactions such as email, discussion boards and chat rooms before joining online classes.
Government/educational institutions should adopt the policy to provide free internet and free digital
gadgets to all learners in order to encourage online learning as a result of which people would get
engaged themselves during lockdown and remain safe from pandemics

Impact of Covid 19 on learning – evidence from six sub Saharan African countries:

• What are the impacts of COVID-19 on school enrollment and attendance? • Does the pandemic result
in learning inequalities in terms of access to different learning activities and contact with teachers? • Do
these impacts vary for different types of households, such as rich versus poor households, and less
educated parents versus more educated parents? • To what extent do community characteristics such
as area of residence mitigate or exacerbate these impacts?

Findings: The overall patterns for the six countries indicate that richer households or households with
more educated heads have more learning activities for their children. The gaps between the richest and
the poorest consumption quintiles range from 13 percentage points (Malawi) to 31 percentage points
(Uganda). The gaps between households where heads have post-secondary education relative to those
with no formal education range from 17 percentage points (Nigeria) to 48 percentage points (Malawi).
Notably, the participation rate in learning activities for the most educated households in Malawi is
nearly 60 percent, almost six times higher than the corresponding figure for the least educated
households. In fact, while the most educated households in Malawi have higher participation rates than
those of Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, Malawi has a lower overall participation rate compared to the latter
two countries. These differences raise particular concerns about the high level of inequality in learning
activities for Malawi.

Support should be focused on households that are poor, have less education, or reside in rural areas.
These vulnerable groups have been hardest hit and are most in need of protection against deepening
levels of learning inequalities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HOW MANY CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE INTERNET ACCESS AT HOME? Estimating digital
connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic – Unicef report
Obj: the disruption to education and other essential activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic make it
necessary to understand how many children and young people aged 25 years or less are able to access
digital technology at home that can support their educational, professional, social and other needs. As
such, rather than simply estimating the share of households with an internet connection, this analysis
leverages household survey data from 87 countries and looks specifically at the number of children and
young people aged 25 years or less who live in households that have an internet connection. Therefore,
the statistics presented in this report are influenced by the number of family members aged 25 years or
less in each household.

Findings: Globally, two-thirds of children and young people aged 25 years or less do not have an internet
connection at home. However, access varies widely depending on countries’ relative wealth: in high-
income countries 87 per cent of children and young people have an internet connection at home, but in
low-income countries only 6 per cent do. This pattern holds true for the other age groups analyzed
(school-age children 3 to 17 years old and youths 15 to 24 years old). Strong inequality in digital
connectivity can also be seen across the world’s regions. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
approximately 60 per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less have internet access at
home. A similar situation is observed in the East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean
regions, where at least 50 per cent of children and young people have internet Low income Lower-
middle income Upper-middle income 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 High income Global 8 19 59 89
37 6 14 60 86 33 6 15 56 87 33 Children and youths (0-25 years old) Youths (15-24 years old) School-age
children (3-17 years old) Figure 1 Percentage of children and young people with internet access at home,
by country income group Source: Authors’ calculations based on Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys,
Demographic and Health Surveys and other national household surveys (2010-2020). connectivity at
home. However, in South Asia as well as Eastern and Southern Africa only 13 per cent of children and
young people have internet access at home, and in West and Central Africa access is even lower at 5 per
cent. The actual headcounts behind these percentages are striking: 2.2 billion children and young people
aged 25 years or less worldwide – out of which approximately 1.3 billion are school-age girls and boys
between 3 to 17 years old and nearly 760 million are youths aged 15 to 24 years – do not have an
internet connection at home. 768 million of these children and young people aged 25 years or less live in
South Asia. In the regions of East Asia and Pacific, West and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern
Africa more than 300 million children and young people per region lack home internet access, totaling
more than 900 million without access.
Globally, 25 per cent of rural children and young people aged 25 years or less have internet access
compared to 41 per cent of their urban peers, a difference of 16 percentage points. However, some
regions show a much larger gap. In the Latin America and Caribbean region, for example, 27 per cent of
rural children and young people have internet access at home, compared to 62 per cent of their urban
peers, a difference of 35 percentage points.

However, the presence of a rural-urban digital gap is in many ways a function of a country’s income
level. The data show that inequities in home internet access between children and young people aged
25 years or less from rural and urban areas are almost non-existent in high-income countries, but they
are much more noticeable in low-, lower- and upper-middle-income settings.
Too Many Schools Leave Learning to Chance During the Pandemic, Betheny Gross & Alice Opalka, June
2020

Obj: The COVID-19 response database tracks how a nationally representative group of school districts
responded to the COVID-19 school closures in spring 2020. The goal of this effort is to create a national
portrait of the expectations school districts set for the continuation of learning and support to students
during the spring closure period. Our sample includes 477 school districts, sampled and weighed to
reflect a representative cross-section of school districts across the U.S

Findings: Rolling out quality remote learning plans is something that would ordinarily take districts
months, if not years, of planning. The COVID-19 crisis forced districts to accomplish this in a matter of
weeks, while balancing equity and connectivity needs and providing access to basic resources. It was
unlikely to be perfect. Only Half of the Districts Track Students’ Engagement in Learning, More Than
Four Districts in Ten Do Not Require Teachers to Monitor Students’ Academic Progress, The Largest
Divide in Access to Instruction and Progress Monitoring May Be Between Urban and Rural School
Districts. Affluent Districts Are Twice as Likely as High-Poverty Districts to Require Live Instruction

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Education System in Developing Countries: A Review, Seble
Tadesse1, Worku Muluye2 (2020)
Obj: aims to review the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education system in
developing countries

Findings: The school closure brings difficulties for students, families, and teachers. So,
distance learning is a solution to continue the education system. However, distance
learning is challenging in developing countries because many parents have not
themselves been to school, lack of ICT infrastructures, computers, radio, and television.
The poor and digitally-illiterate families with lower educational levels children with poor
learning motivation are more suffering in this situation and this increases inequality.
Students in most rural areas may be forced to fully support their families in cattle
herding and farming. Also, girl students from low-income families and rural areas can be
at a higher risk of sexual abuse, and forced labor, and early marriage. Therefore,
developing countries should scale online teaching and learning infrastructures.
governments should scale network infrastructure and internet connectivity across urban
and rural areas. The countries should design a strategy to scale educational technology,
establish zero-rating educational resources on the internet, prepare digital teaching and
learning resources, utilizing free online learning resources, use mobile learning, use
radio and television teaching, and grow-up ICT infrastructures.

Introduction: For example, Bacher-Hicks et al. (2021)1 find that high income areas in the United States
with greater internet access and better equipped schools had substantially larger increases in search
intensity for online learning resources than poorer areas. Jæger and Blaabæ (2020)2 observe that in
Denmark, families with higher levels of socioeconomic status took out more digital children’s books,
both before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, than poorer families. During COVID-19, the baseline
gradient increased: families with high socioeconomic status consistently took out more digital children’s
books than their low socioeconomic status counterparts in each of the three phases of the COVID-19
lockdown

Report from unicef:

Globally, 2.2 billion children and young people aged 25 years or less – two-thirds of children and young
people worldwide – do not have an internet connection at home.1

2. More than two-thirds of school-age girls and boys aged approximately 3 to 17 years (1.3 billion
children) and 63 per cent of youths aged 15 to 24 years (almost 760 million youths) lack internet access
at home.
3. 768 million children and young people aged 25 years or less who lack internet access live in South
Asia. In the regions of East Asia and Pacific, West and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa
more than 300 million children and young people per region lack home internet access, totaling more
than 900 million without access.

4. There is marked inequality in internet connectivity across the world’s regions. Only 5 per cent of
children and young people aged 25 years or less in West and Central Africa, and just 13 per cent in South
Asia and in Eastern and Southern Africa, have internet access at home, compared to 59 per cent in
Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

5. Differences in access to the internet are even starker between rich and poor countries. Among
children and young people aged 25 years or less only 6 per cent in low-income countries have internet
access at home, compared to 87 per cent in high-income countries.

6. A large difference is also seen globally in levels of home internet access between children and young
people who live in rural areas (25 per cent) and their urban peers (41 per cent).

7. Socioeconomic inequalities within countries also produce notable differences in internet access.
Globally, 58 per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less whose families are among the
richest 20 per cent in their countries have internet access at home, whereas only 16 per cent of children
and young people from the poorest 20 per cent of households in their countries have such access. While
high-income countries have high rates of internet access, sizable gaps exist – although the richest
households have near universal access at 97 per cent, only 74 per cent of the poorest households have
access.

8. The gap in home internet access between children and young people aged 25 years or less from the
poorest and richest households is greatest in upper-middleincome countries, where it exceeds 50
percentage points. In contrast, while only 2 per cent of children and young people from the poorest
households in lowincome countries have internet access at home, just 16 per cent of their richest peers
are connected, which underscores the low prevalence of internet access.

9. The impact of wealth on internet access is also visible at the regional level. In West and Central Africa,
internet access for the poorest populations is almost non-existent. In Eastern and Southern Africa, just 3
per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less from the poorest families have internet
access at home, compared to 40 per cent of children and young people from the richest families. The
largest regional disparity in internet access due to household wealth is seen in the East Asia and Pacific
region, where only 23 per cent of children and young people from the poorest households have internet
access compared to more than 80 per cent among the richest households.
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