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Thread: I've been looking through various data sources to see how other major nations have handled Covid-19 and education/school policy and outcomes: https://www.tes.com/news/school-reopening-pandemic-plans-nations-compare-uk-france-germany-italy-japan-usa There is no one major insight but lots of interesting points throughout...
For example schools in France have been fully open for longer due, in part, to having more autonomy at a local level to close when they see fit due to local infection rates. This is also the case in Japan and has worked well for them too. V different to UK https://www.tes.com/news/dfe-orders-council-back-down-and-keep-schools-open
And in France, as in Germany, there has been clearer communication on schools staying open while other elements of society remained closed down - giving the public a better understanding of why certain policy decisions were being made around schools.
Of course more local control can have its downsides, as the USA has discovered with a mixed approach that has left many teachers in school as normal and others fully remote - and the rest hybrid teaching. This map from @mchdata shows how patchwork it is https://www.mchdata.com/covid19/schoolclosings
Perhaps most stark is the teacher mortality data between the nations: A major USA teaching union estimates over 500 deaths, while in Germany @rki_de data shows 21 teachers have died. In Japan no teacher deaths have been reported - sadly unlike the UK https://www.tes.com/news/school-reopening-march-8-half-term-teachers-safety-covid-education
None of this is hard and fast and every nation's education policy through the pandemic has been different due to circumstance and numerous other contextual factors. But it offers interesting insights on the options that have been taken - or not - and the impact they have had.
With thanks to @insights4ed and its CEO Dr Randa Grob-Zakhary and @susannahhares from @cgdev for insights on their data, the @WFP for its information and numerous teachers speaking both on and off the record.
