Learning loss has been the chief worry among educators since the start of the pandemic. But it has been hard to quantify. We now know that children missed out on more than one-third of a school year’s worth of learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the loss is associated with the school closures that were enacted out of an abundance of caution and to comply with quarantine restrictions.

This is according to a study published in Nature Human Behaviour.

The study, which examined multiple countries, found that certain groups were impacted more than others and certain subjects were impacted more than others:

“Learning deficits are particularly large among children from low socio-economic backgrounds. They are also larger in maths than in reading and in middle-income countries relative to high-income countries” the study said.  

Read the full study here.