Almost half of young people with long COVID reported lost learning

Girl are sitting stressed studying online with a tutor on a laptop while sitting in the bedroom at home night. Concept online learning at home - Nearly half (45%) of all young people who reported having long COVID felt they had fallen behind their classmates due to the pandemic - with almost three in five (59%) saying that they had not caught up with lost learning - according to new research involving UCL. L ed jointly by the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), and the Sutton Trust, the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is the largest study examining the impacts of the pandemic on young people. Published as a briefing, the study explores the health impacts and behaviours of almost 13,000 young people across England who were in Year 11 in 2021/22. Most of the cohort are currently in Year 13, if they are still in education. The briefing explores the incidence of COVID-19 and long COVID, and how this has affected young people's education - including GCSE attainment using linked National Pupil Database (NPD) data. The study found that around half (52%) of young people who were asked to shield from the virus reported that they had fallen behind their classmates, compared to a third (33%) of those who were not asked to shield.