Skipping class: have Victorian students fallen behind because of remote learning?

At the end of a second year of interrupted schooling thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, Victorian teachers are circumspect.

Tim and Melissa both say that their young students needed intensive social and emotional learning activities when they returned to the physical classroom, as they grappled with the behavioural expectations that came from learning and interacting with other people in the same physical environment.

Malcolm Elliot, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, tells Guardian Australia that this is something primary teachers are seeing across the board in places where remote schooling was prolonged.

Older children with more capacity for self-direction seemed to better cope with online learning than younger children, but Elliot warns that this depends a lot on highly variable individual circumstances.

Hattie says we ought to be asking why, from the data made available so far, remote learning appeared to work so well in so many cases. It would be a mistake, though, to presume it worked for all children.

The Victorian government has provided money for tutoring to help catch up any students that have fallen behind, which has been gratefully received by schools. It shakes down to an allocation of about $15-$18k per school, though, which means the programs can only target a small cohort or subject.

* Names have been changed for privacy reasons