The Economist - USA (2021-02-13)

The Economist February 13th 2021 49

Europe

Education and covid-19

A tale of two colleges

N

o one isever truly ready for lockdown.

But when the Netherlands closed its

schools in December, the Herman Wesse-

link College, a high school in a well-off

suburb of Amsterdam, was readier than

most. About half its students have parents

who completed higher education. Nearly

all have their own bedroom to study in. The

school has given its pupils laptops for

years, and during the first lockdown last

spring switched smoothly to remote learn-

ing. The director says students have not

fallen behind a whit in terms of content,

though their study skills have languished.

The Mundus College, a trade school in a

poorer Amsterdam neighbourhood, has

had it rougher. About a third of its students

are new immigrants or refugees. Vocation-

al education is hard to do remotely. Classes

have stayed open at half-size under an ex-

ception for vulnerable students, but it is

impossible to follow social-distancing

rules for subjects like nursing, says Diana

Brummelhuis, the director: “You can’t

teach someone to handle a wheelchair by

lecturing.” She estimates that her pupils

are lagging at least a quarter behind their

normal pace.

Such contrasts are playing out all over

Europe. On a continent famous for its wel-

fare systems, school closures threaten to

widen divisions of education, ethnicity

and class. Compared with the rest of the

world, Europe has not done badly during

the pandemic. Most of its schools re-

opened in the autumn, while in South

America and South Asia they largely stayed

shut. But covid-19’s second wave has forced

many European schools to close again.

This hurts all pupils, but it hits the poor

and vulnerable ones harder. France’s edu-

cation ministry says that last spring’s lock-

down increased the gap in exam scores be-

tween normal schools and ones in hard-up

areas by several points. In Germany, that

first lockdown cut studying time from 7.4

hours per day to 3.6. An analysis of last

year’s national exam results in the Nether-

lands came up with the depressing finding

that during the spring lockdown the aver-

age pupil had learned nothing at all. Those

whose parents were poorly educated did

even worse: they emerged from their first

two months of schooling by internet

knowing less than when they started.

France has been the most determined of

any European country not to let schools

close, arguing that the risks to educational

attainment and social cohesion are greater

than those to public health. Last spring

President Emmanuel Macron overrode ad-

vice from epidemiologists and ordered

schools reopened. They have stayed that

way, though since November most high

schools have worked in shifts. Germany

closed its schools from December 16th un-

til at least February 15th. Its state govern-

ments would like to start reopening them,

but Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to

wait until covid-19 caseloads fall by half

from current levels. Northern Europe has

roughly followed the German pattern

(apart from contrarian Sweden, which

closed only briefly in January).

AMSTERDAM

Covid-19 school closures are widening Europe’s class divisions

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