Members of the European Parliament are set to issue a harsh condemnation of school closure policies put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Politico reports.
The European Parliament will vote on a report Wednesday that offers a hard assessment of the effectiveness of school closures, the outlet reported Tuesday. The report alleges school closures widened inequalities and worsened youth mental health issues.
In future pandemics, schools should only be closed “if the epidemiological situation allows it,” the report reads, according to Politico.
The EU finds fault in its Covid response https://t.co/88No3NIDm2 via @politico @RRavinetto @Rvandepas @Radhika_Arora
— Kristof Decoster (@KristofDecoste1) July 11, 2023
The report also encourages countries in the European Union (EU) to “reduce their dependence on third-country trade partners for [pharmaceutical ingredients] and key medicines,” according to Politico. The EU is further encouraged to stockpile emergency medicines and to “consider funding strategic projects in the health sector through a European Sovereignty Fund that could contribute to achieve EU’s strategic autonomy on medical products.”
More than three years after the outset of the pandemic, evidence is mounting that school lockdowns in the United States did more harm than good. Despite low mortality rates among children who contracted the COVID-19 virus, U.S. school closures continued months after the start of the pandemic, seemingly for reasons unrelated to breakouts of the virus, such as teacher burnout. (RELATED: Support For School Choice Shot Up Following COVID-19 Pandemic: POLL)
A 2021 report from the American Enterprise Institute found that 1,268,000 students had left public schools since the pandemic began in March 2020. In the fall of 2021, schools that returned to in-person learning experienced some recovery in enrollment numbers, while those that adopted virtual learning methods were negatively affected, the report found.
Math and reading levels from 2020 to 2022 in K-12 schools fell back two decades, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, with reading scores showing the largest recorded drop. Hispanic students dropped eight points and African American students dropped 13 points in math. A July report found the effects of school closures are ongoing, as students academic recovery stalls.