The 'ghost children' of the pandemic
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been almost two years since the first national lockdown, when schools closed their doors and the nation's families got to grips with home schooling. Since then, an estimated 100,000 students simply haven't returned to education. So who are these 'ghost children’ - and how do we get them back to class?
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Guests:
- Sian Griffiths, Education and Families Editor, The Sunday Times.
- Jonathan Green, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Manchester.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: Channel 4, Sky News, Daily Mail, Belfast Telegraph, ITV News.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's been almost two years since the UK first went into lockdown. |
| 0:11.3 | Schools closed, and parents, all over the country, had to learn to teach. |
| 0:16.8 | But as the months of homeschooling wore on, more and more children started slipping through |
| 0:23.4 | the cracks. |
| 0:24.4 | It's not as easy as saying, or what we need to do is provide everybody with a tablet |
| 0:28.6 | and get them in on Saturdays, and we'll fix it. |
| 0:32.0 | It's far more complex. |
| 0:33.3 | Rachel Pearson is a mother of five. |
| 0:36.2 | And what's it like in terms of getting their homeschooling done? |
| 0:38.9 | They're doing it, it's best to come bit. |
| 0:41.0 | I can't teach him. |
| 0:42.3 | It's hard, isn't it, because we're not trained teachers, are we? |
| 0:44.4 | Yeah, because I don't understand any of it work. |
| 0:46.5 | I can't do it. |
| 0:48.0 | Now that school routines have gone back to normal, it's time to take stock. |
| 0:53.4 | What lasting impact has the pandemic had on the Covid generation? |
| 0:59.0 | We know that there are about 100,000 so-called ghost or missing children who just haven't |
| 1:04.6 | returned to school, and many, many people don't know where they are. |
| 1:08.6 | So who are these ghost children, and how do we get them back into school? |
| 1:13.8 | Really, it's about recognising what a tough time the families have had, and re-aggaging |
| 1:19.4 | with those supports. |
| 1:21.3 | All listening to stories of our times, from the times and the Sunday times, I'm Manvin |
... |
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