What Coronavirus means for education, childcare and working parents [Podcast] EP18

The closure of schools and childcare facilities have meant most parents currently have their children at home. Given the expectation that children won’t return to full time education for some time yet, this raises big questions over the quality of their education and the ability of their parents to juggle children learning from home as well as them being able to continue in paid work.

Given previous, entrenched, gender inequalities, this also throws up the risk of reducing the participation of mothers in the labour market further. For lower income families, any loss of earnings could be catastrophic, and many of these parents will face additional challenges in terms of ensuring that their children have a supportive learning environment.

This podcast covers many of these themes, with a focus on the experience of parents, particularly mothers, and builds on the themes covered in this report by Jenifer Johnston, one of our participants: https://reformscotland.com/2020/05/scotland-needs-a-virtual-school-jenifer-johnston/

Timestamps
(1:41) Overview of the report (Jenifer)
(3:34) Pre-crisis labour market inequalities and attainment gap and emerging picture (Tanya, Emma)
(11:48) Are there people falling between the cracks? (Jenifer)
(13:20) Discussion around potential for increased inequality (Tanya, Emma)
(21:33) Possible delivery model for education in next few months and implications (Jenifer)
(27:49) Looking ahead: risks, opportunities and policy (Jenifer, Tanya, Emma)
(39:10) Particular issues facing low income families (Emma)
(42:06) Wrap-up and what are the priorities that need addressing (Jenifer, Tanya)