Authors

The PERU MiCREATE team

Abstract

The global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has a profound impact on everyday life, including education. In March 2020, an estimated 1.3 billion children were taken out of the classroom following school closures around the world in March 2020 (UNESCO, 2020). The Prime Minister’s announcement on 4^th January 2021 placed England under another strict National lockdown, once again requiring a majority of pupils to rely on home learning (Cabinet Office, 2021). Although children are due to return to schools on 8^th March, these lockdowns have had a profound impact on the education and long-term employment prospects of all young people, with certain groups of children being particularly at risk. This policy report is concerned with migrant children, as migrant communities faced stark social and educational inequalities in the UK even before the lockdown and it is anticipated that the pandemic will have only exacerbated these. In this report, we use data collected from school staff in Manchester City Council Department for Education and staff participating in the MiCREATE project to bring to light challenges faced by migrant communities and children in accessing education during school closures and socially-distanced learning. We found that migrant families faced numerous challenges, many of which school staff struggled to address alone. Therefore, strong commitment from local, national and school leadership is needed to address these. Moreover, systematic and holistic inclusion policies are needed when schools re-open to reduce the ever-increasing inequalities this group faces.  This policy brief is targeted at policymakers, educational professionals and teachers working in the British schools

The PERU MiCREATE Team (2020) Pandemic, Online Learning and its Impact on Migrant Children in the UK, Manchester: PERU/MiCREATE

MiCreate Corona Brief UK v3