More than one quarter of parents feel their children did not learn enough at home during school closures according to a survey from Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Just over half of parents felt confident that their children were learning enough, while one in five parents felt they did not have a strong enough internet connection to support online learning.
On average, each household had three members relying on different devices for work or study, affecting the child’s access to online resources.
Some parents noted that materials being sent by the school needed to be printed out and their household had no access to a printer.
The Covid-19 Parent Survey found that parents of a child with a disability, or with a child towards the end of Primary school were most likely to feel their child’s learning was being negatively impacted by the lockdown.
Lack of time for parents to support learning and poor communication from schools were two factors which were said to be affecting children’s learning.
The survey also found that over 75% of parents were highly confident in supporting their child’s learning at home, with only 14% of respondents saying they were not able to help their child.
The level of communication from schools was viewed well overall, with 79% of parents rating their school’s communication as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
Director of Research at the School of Education in TCD, Dr Ann Devitt said: “We would advise parents to continue to extend all the family learning and family literacy practices they are already doing. The key message from this report is that family learning is effective.”
