Closing schools increases educational inequality

When the schools in the Netherlands closed on 16 March, children had to learn at home and parents took up a key responsibility to assist them. Preliminary research by the University of Amsterdam suggests that this situation has increased educational inequality. Sociologist Thijs Bol conducted a survey of the effects from the school closure among some 800 Dutch parents and their 1,300 children in primary or secondary education. What services did schools offer to them, how did the parents themselves support their children's homework and were there material differences between families? As Bol concludes, the school closure and home education have reduced equal opportunities in education. Different levels of assistance in primary education . A very large majority of parents in both primary and secondary education set great store by the continued completion of homework by their children. The willingness or ability of parents to offer assistance does differ significantly, however, such as in primary education. Parents with a university education more often assist their children in primary education with homework than parents with lower education: while 70% of university-trained parents claim to help often or very often, 50% of parents with low education do so; the percentage who feel confident in their ability to assist their child is 80% among university-trained parents as opposed to 63% among parents who completed secondary school at best. Greater difference in levels of assistance in secondary education