The Covid-19 crisis has stymied children’s education, according to a new report.
And council chiefs are ready to combat the issue by submitting recovery plans for next year.
The authority revealed “attainment data” for its schools which showed that primary pupils’ progress has been hit in literacy and numeracy.
A spokesman said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on the progress and achievements of young people across Dumfries and Galloway as well as nationally.
“This assessment picture, based on teacher judgements in relation to where they would expect children to be at this stage of Curriculum for Excellence, shows that children’s progress has been affected in all stages at primary one, four and seven levels.“
The data revealed that year-on-year improvement has halted and there’s been a worrying dip of up to 10 per cent recorded for attainment in reading, writing, listening and talking compared to pre-pandemic.
There was a similar drop in numeracy although the spokesman added: “There was a slightly smaller dip of between five per cent and eight per cent at P1 and P4 respectively and of around 10 per cent at P7.
“The challenges brought about by the pandemic have impacted the normal processes of learning, teaching, assessment and evidence gathering that teachers would routinely use to help form their judgements.
“Although the data describes a snapshot in time as captured in June 2021, we know the significant, ongoing efforts taking place in every school and Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) setting to address recovery and meet the needs of young people and their families.”
Now every school and ELC setting has submitted its plans for recovery in session 2021-22 with literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing as focus areas.
Schools will be closely monitoring performance throughout the year and this will form part of the ongoing discussion with parents about pupil progress.
Jim Brown, chief education officer, said: “The process of recovery will be ongoing and will be a gradual and incremental process to rebuild firm foundations and to develop learning skills among young people who have lost learning time and opportunities they would otherwise have had.
“We also know that some children’s learning has been affected more than others and we are targeting our efforts to those where the data shows the gaps have widened most.”
“Schools and clusters are working closely together to use the recovery curriculum to close the gap.”
