School closure in the COVID-19 pandemic: socioemotional, cognitive and learning impact
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25118/2763-9037.2020.v10.23Keywords:
School closure, social isolation, COVID- 19, learning, cognitive development, socioemotional developmentAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of schools worldwide for up to approximately eight months in 2020. One of the longest periods of removal of children and adolescents from face-to-face learning and social coexistence has occurred and still occurs in Brazil. Although it cannot be denied that many characteristics of the virus and its consequences are still poorly known, the evidence and estimates so far support a position in favor of opening schools, following all the precautions recommended by scientific institutions and health and education authorities. This article aims to map evidence and scientific documents with interpretations, from the point of view of neuropsychology and medicine, of the individual and collective impact of school closure on the socioemotional, cognitive and academic learning arenas.Children, especially the younger ones, tend to develop a lot in a few months, considering neuroscientific evidence of optimal developmental windows. Social coexistence and the formation/consolidation of socioemotional learning habits, reading habits and study opportunities in the school environment are unique. Three key arguments are addressed and briefly analyzed in this article: 1) the evidence on transmissibility and epidemiology of COVID-19 in children and their relatives/teachers support the notion that the benefits of school opening outweigh the risks; 2) there has been strong evidence of damage to cognitive, socioemotional and school learning development for students, in addition to the estimate of long-term generational impacts to be observed for at least four decades; and 3) the mental health and cost of subsequent work for parents, teachers and school institutions seem to be another risk zone. Finally, in addition to evidence, final reflections are made taking into consideration that the core of this analysis is a matter of individual decis on, considering the opposing force of the collective impact of a year or more of interrupted school experience on the development of a generation and a society, especially in the context of sociocultural, economic, emotional and cognitive vulnerability.
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