Inequality in homeschooling during the Corona crisis in the Netherlands. First results from the LISS Panel.

Abstract

The outbreak of the Corona virus has led to unprecedented measures in education. From March 16, all schools in the Netherlands are closed, and children must keep up with their schoolwork from home. Parents are expected to take a crucial role in this “homeschooling”: they are primarily responsible for ensuring that their children follow the curriculum. In this article I report the first results of a module in the LISS Panel that was designed to map how parents school their children in primary and secondary education. Data on a nationally representative sample of 1,318 children in primary and secondary education were gathered in April. The results show marked differences between social groups. Whereas all parents find it important that their children keep up with the schoolwork, children from advantaged backgrounds receive much more parental support and have more resources (e.g., own computer) to study from home. Differences in parental support are driven by the ability to help: parents with a higher education degree feels themselves much capable to help their children with schoolwork than lower educated parents. Parents also report that schools provide more extensive distant schooling for children in the academic track in secondary education (vwo) than for children in the pre-vocational track (vmbo). Finally, there is a clear gender gap: parents feel much more capable to support their daughters than their sons.These initial findings provide clear indications that the school shutdown in the Netherlands is likely to have strong effects on the inequality in educational opportunities.

Social inequality in the homeschooling efforts of German high school students during a school closing period

“…Moreover, other factors that we did not include in the survey such as educational norms within families might be important in explaining the SES gap. Furthermore, recent research suggests that assessments of parents regarding whether or not they are capable of helping their children with homeschooling during school closures varies by social origin (Bol 2020). Due to dynamics of the public awareness and political responses to the spread of the corona virus, only a subsample of respondents received the COVID-19 module.…”

“…A rich body of research shows that familial socialisation processes have a direct impact on children's learning success and educational achievement (e.g. Johnson et al 2007;Tsai et al 2017;Bol 2020), and the impact of such processes depends on parental language proficiency, parental norms and values, or motivation. As these factors differ between social strata, learning effort during school closures should differ between students from different social backgrounds.…”

Learning for all? Second-level education in Ireland during COVID-19

“…In the UK, parents with graduate level education were found to engage in home-schooling for a greater number of days a week than parents without such education (Anders et al, April 2020). Using nationally representative data from parents in the Netherlands, Bol (2020) finds that students from more advantaged backgrounds 'receive much more parental support and have more resources'. While 75 per cent of parents with higher education feel equipped to support their children, only 40 per cent of parents with lower levels of education express confidence in their ability to offer support.…”

Track recommendation procedures and the cancellation of the school leavers’ test during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

“…More specifically, some teachers indicated that they were considering to take into account the work habits and school development of students during the school shutdown. A prior study showed that Dutch students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds received more school support during the school shutdown, partly because their parents were better equipped to help (Bol 2020). Relatedly, Dutch students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds experienced a smaller learning loss during the shutdown (Engzell, Frey, and Verhagen 2020).…”