Why children suffer most from lockdowns

School closures harm the prospects of children and it’s the poorest who are hurt the most. On a global level, that will have huge effects on human development.

Mother and daughter on a computer © NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Home schooling – the novelty soon wore off © Shutterstock
(Image credit: Mother and daughter on a computer © NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

What’s happening?

Most primary schools in England are starting to reopen to all children (not just those of key workers) from next week, albeit only for Reception and Years 1 and 6. Classes have typically been split into two “bubbles” or “pods”, with teachers drafted in from other year groups to make up the numbers. Most schools will not open every day as teachers will need to work on learning programmes for those children (for now the majority) who are still at home. The return to normality is likely to be slow and gradual. Repairing the damage caused by the shutdown might be even harder.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.