Generation C: Education in a post-pandemic world 

Anxious, delayed, and addicted. Welcome to ‘Generation C’, the kids who came of age during Covid. Schools are battling to provide them with the education and developmental environment they need. With the help of medical professionals schools are finding some success. Elaysha Smith reports.

From phone addiction to not being toilet trained, the children affected by Covid have a wide range of challenges.

“Students are battling with trauma,” Wale Olaniran, a secondary school assistant headteacher, says. “They have trauma from being locked in all day and only learning from a screen. For over a year they didn’t experience face-to-face contact or the opportunity to socialise with kids their age.”

School avoidance 

For most “quaranteens”, their daily routine and structure were immensely disrupted. Studies suggest some students are still struggling to get back to normality, which has led to an increase in absenteeism.

The Department for Education reports that before the pandemic, in 2018/19, the persistent absence rate was 10.5% which rose to 21.5% in spring 2023/24.

Dr Michele McDowell, an educational and child psychologist, offers a reason for the truancy. “It’s called emotional-based school avoidance,” she says.

“More and more children are finding that they are so anxious, even about the school building. The whole idea of having to go back to that schedule has been challenging.” 

The NHS defines emotional-based school avoidance, also known as (EBSA), as “reduced or non-attendance at school by a child or young person”.

In an effort to build a safe environment for children traumatised by the pandemic, some parents have chosen homeschooling. A BBC investigation found the number of children moving to home education in the UK is at its highest level since the pandemic. The broadcaster found councils received almost 50,000 notifications in the last academic year from families wanting to take their children out of school. 

The ones who still attend

For pupils who have continued to attend mainstream school, how has the atmosphere changed?

“They can either be extremely withdrawn or overly boisterous. It’s two ends of a spectrum,” says Wale Olaniran. Schools are now forced to take drastic measures to handle this change in behaviour. The Guardian found that 50 secondary schools in England excluded more than a quarter of their pupils after the pandemic.

So post-pandemic, behaviour in schools has significantly deteriorated. Schools are now tasked with teaching pupils essential social skills, such as waiting in a queue, not shouting out in class, sharing equipment and practising courtesies like saying “please” and “thank you”.

School readiness

Academically, there has been a noticeable decline in children achieving developmental milestones.

The National Handwriting Association says that it is a statutory requirement for children aged 10–11 (Years 5–6) to be taught how to write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed. 

“I’ve seen an increase in children starting Year 7 who are unable to write,” says Olaniran. “During Covid, they were using computers, not pen and paper.”

This issue has led schools to adapt their teaching methods to better meet the needs of individual students, often including timetabling extra classes focused on handwriting.

It’s not just pre-teens who were affected developmentally by the pandemic. Research conducted by the Centre for Young Lives indicates a huge number of children in England are not starting primary school “school ready”. This includes being able to listen and speak, cognition and social skills such as sitting still, waiting their turn and using cutlery.

Anne Longfield, executive chair of the centre, expressed concern about children arriving at primary school wearing nappies, still using buggies and unable to communicate at the expected level or to socialise with other children. She then added these pupils will need extra attention and support from already overstretched schools.

Early years charity Kindred, which surveyed more than 1,000 teachers, found that 90% of teachers say at least one child in their class is not toilet trained. This links to Anne Longfield’s finding of an increase in the responsibility placed on teachers, who must now allocate time for personal care and hygiene issues, leading to a reported 2.5 hours of teacher time being lost each day.

Online use

When the pandemic began, Heather Barlow had three boys in school who were nine, 14 and 15 at the time. “They’d stay up later than normal as they weren’t as tired as they would be if they were in school. Keeping up with the morning routine was the main issue. We also didn’t do homework in the evening as we normally would, so it was more TV/PC time.”

Like most teenagers during COVID-19, her sons spent more time on their mobile phones and gaming consoles. This could be attributed to children craving social intimacy and using devices to maintain friendships. “The sheer amount of time that young people are spending online has increased immensely,” Dr McDowell said.

With an increase in online usage, the dangers of being digitally abused increase. “More parents are contacting me with the concern about cyberbullying,” Dr McDowell adds. A 2024 report published by Ofcom states: “Two in five (40%) 8–17-year-olds agree that ‘people are mean or unkind to each other’ on the social media and messaging apps/sites they use, either all or most of the time.”

Moving forward

Dr McDowell advises parents of children affected by developmental delays to increase social interactions and decrease screen time. She emphasises that children are losing out on opportunities for modelling behaviour through listening and observing as they are constantly looking at a screen. So, to parents who love Cocomelon and Ms Rachel, “delay it as much as you can,” Dr McDowell suggests.

Mr Olaniran states his mission is to help his students further their independence and develop holistically. “It’s important to know school is not a factory. We shouldn’t solely focus on the mainstream curriculum. If a child has an interest in cooking, music, or art it’s not frowned upon, it’s encouraged. Doing this is developing students’ need to be a bit more resilient.”

For children who struggle with mental health problems, Mr Olaniran says his current school has a social worker on-site, and provides multiple mentoring schemes. According to Dr McDowell, some schools are being encouraged to recruit emotional literacy support assistants (ELSA). Bristol City Council published a report defining the role of an ELSA as a school-based learning support assistant who supports the emotional wellbeing of pupils.