By Jordan Baker
Disadvantaged students in NSW lost around two weeks' worth of learning in maths and more than a week in reading while schools were delivering lessons remotely, a report has found as children head back to classrooms on Monday.
The Centre for Independent Studies paper argued schools should quickly triage their pupils' learning progress to stop those disadvantaged students slipping further behind.
But other experts say wellbeing should be prioritised over learning assessment as students will have had vastly different experiences during the home-learning period.
Glenn Fahey, research fellow in education policy at the centre, analysed Australian NAPLAN data alongside the results of a study from the United States in which some students learned remotely and others in class.
Over seven weeks of remote learning in NSW, he estimated that disadvantaged students in year five would lose an average of 1.1 weeks of reading and 1.9 of numeracy, while those in year 9 would lose 1.6 of reading and 2.3 of numeracy.
International assessments showed even in normal times, disadvantaged 15-year-olds in Australia were 37 weeks behind the typical students in numeracy, and 35 weeks behind in reading.
Educational disadvantage considers factors such as a student's socio-economic status, their parent's education and their geographic location.
As students reacted differently to remote schooling and lessons varied in quality, some would have lost more learning and others less. Similar losses could also have been experienced by advantaged students who struggled with doing classwork at home, Mr Fahey said.
"It's important to note that the estimates we produced are an average — the variability is where the policy concern really is," he said. "The immediate thing we need to do is have an effective diagnostic [assessment], so we know where we stand.
"The temptation is going to be to focus on getting students back into the routine of being at school. That's quite understandable.
"But we have to remember that we have already lost learning. If we continue to allow another few weeks on top of that, we are starting to enter the realms of insurmountable challenges for the rest of this year."
The NSW Department of Education has said it is providing schools with tests to provide a "short, sharp" insight into how students had progressed during remote learning and to help them develop teaching plans.
While some experts have called for tutoring and extra expertise to help students catch up, Mr Fahey said schools should be given the flexibility to work out methods that best suit them, such as rearranging class groups to allow intensive work with students who needed it most.
However, other education experts said schools should prioritise helping students settle down after a strange and often stressful experience.
Pasi Sahlberg, research director at the Gonski Institute for Education, said schools should put social and emotional wellbeing first. "I think we should let children play and learn outside as much as possible," he said.
"Schools should not worry too much about how much teaching kids have missed when they were not at school and instead focus more on what they learned when they had more time to do their own things on their own pace. I bet many of us would be surprised about the latter."
Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett, an expert in early childhood education at the University of Wollongong, said students will have had a wide range of experiences and many would be unsettled by the return.
"One of my real concerns is that teachers will feel pressured to play catch-up," she said.
"It's important that as we move back to school, this is a time to slow things down and create space for dialogue and connection."