Disruption, disadvantage, and determination - studying through Covid

After two years of uncertainty, Auckland students understand better than most what it’s like to study in a pandemic. But no one knows for sure what the long-term impacts of disrupted learning are, and there are concerns it will exacerbate the disadvantages some already face.

The latest addition to the already colourful living room walls of Hellen Seuula's Manurewa home is an intricate illustration of her family.

Around it are portraits of her parents beaming for the camera, her late grandfather in Samoa and other reminders of the family's island roots.

"Family always comes first," she says.

It's a phrase the 18-year-old repeats often, recalling how she completed her final two years at Manurewa High School during a pandemic, often putting others' needs over her own.

"Covid really did impact a lot on my mental and emotional side because I really prefer physical learning. I know for me, having to email small questions, I found it quite annoying."

What drove her to push on was her late grandparents' dream that led her family to immigrate to New Zealand in 2004.

"My parents… sacrificed so much. They could have had a nice life back home, they could have finished school.

"They really wanted us to come here to find a better future - that was my grandpa's vision before he died. They did what they did, so I want to make them proud.

"My parents, honestly, especially us Polys, I don't know who better supports us than our parents."

Seuula never planned to become Manurewa High's head girl in 2021, but was inspired by those who came before her and wanted to give back.

"But then also, the people in the community, my village, my family, they saw potential in me… so, it's a blessing that I became one, and the first one in my family."

But, with Covid-19, that role came with a twist.

Seuula and head boy Beitor Li used social media to keep students connected. That meant recording videos about everything from lockdown life, Covid-19 vaccinations, assemblies. They also collaborated with student leaders across Auckland to encourage people to care for their mental wellbeing while studying.

"After getting the head boy title and status, it kind of made me feel like I had to behave a certain way for students to look up to me," Li, 18, says.

"That was how I felt, initially, after the first lockdown. But, after that, when we came back to school, I realised maybe our students didn't think like that. Maybe our students actually want something from us, and rather than just looking at us they wanted to have a concrete relationship.

"I realised that I could only do what I could and just tried to be the best leader I could be."

Part of it was learning to realise his own worth, even as he struggled through lockdown learning - and being open about those challenges.

"2020 was a really rough year - it was draining for me, it was bad for my mental health and everything. I was very negligent about basically everything because I thought, OK, I'm going to be fine. But, in 2021, I learned from my mistakes and said, 'Oh, sh*t, I need to get my stuff together.'

"A lot of us [students] were really anxious about our grades because a lot of my cohort wanted to go to university."

But, some didn't have that chance.

Li and Seuula say many South Auckland families have struggled financially over the last two years, leaving students torn between carrying on with their studies or getting jobs.

In 2020, 1News reported as many as 200 students at Manurewa High, the largest decile 1 school in the country, didn't return after the first lockdown.

"It was heartbreaking for me to see my friends who really wanted to study, but had to sacrifice that just to put food on the table," Seuula says. "We all wanted everyone to cross the stage at graduation."

For those who did stay, life became a juggling act. Seuula says it was exhausting keeping up with her studies, head girl duties, extracurriculars and work. The latter was especially difficult during the first lockdown - her factory job helped pay the bills, but she was rostered on for 12-hour shifts, four days a week.

"I had a Thursday night shift from 7pm, and then I finish Friday morning. Then I went straight to school. I did 24 hours, staying awake, living on water, energy drinks, caffeine…

“Although I didn't like the hours, it was also for my family. Like I said, for me, that always comes first."

Seuula has since found another job with better hours in a role she says she finds a lot more enjoyable.

She says even if students do choose to prioritise helping their families by working, it doesn't mean there's a level playing field.

"Some others around Auckland maybe didn't really have to worry about working and studying as well. Whereas, especially for our Poly people, some of us struggled more in that sense.

"We love our families. We have a responsibility where, if you're the eldest, you have to work and get money to provide for your family. But, then, you're also expected to balance it with school.

"It's that inequality, but it is what it is."

The Education Review Office (ERO) has been surveying students, teachers and principals to get a better grasp of Covid-19's impact on education.

It's found learning in lockdown did result in some positives - stronger relationships between schools and whānau, increasingly flexible ways of learning and an acceleration in digital learning.

But what isn't yet clear is how the pandemic will affect Kiwi students' learning in the long-term.

"Consistently, teachers and principals have been concerned and reported that students are not getting where they were previously [with their learning]," Ruth Shinoda, head of ERO's education evaluation centre Te Ihuwaka, says.

She says there's also increasing concern that learning gaps will fall unequally.

Lower-decile schools report facing additional pressures and greater disruption from Covid-19, while primary school students are more optimistic they can keep their learning on track in lockdown than their secondary school counterparts.

Shinoda says it's been "quite hard to untangle" the impact of last year's NCEA credit top-ups for Auckland students and other assistance in 2020.

READ MORE: Senior students say goodbye to high school Covid style

New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) data shows about 43 per cent of students in Auckland, Waikato and Northland - the regions most affected by last year's restrictions - chose not to sit their end-of-year exams in 2021. Some students opted for a grade based on internal assessments taken throughout the school year, or use their 'mock' exam results.

"I think the picture will become clearer over this year where we will have more results from NCEA and other assessment tools we use within our schools," Shinoda says.

"Also, looking at other countries and the impact they're seeing, again, it seems to be a pretty mixed picture with some students doing well and some really not."

US research noted by ERO found long-standing inequities have been made worse, and the ripple effects from pandemic-disrupted learning may undermine students' future earning potential and chances of attending higher education.

Shinoda says this risk needs to be closely monitored in New Zealand, ERO keeping an eye on student achievement, attendance rates and whether inequities in outcomes between different groups of students are increasing.

ERO's reports outline a number of concerns from schools: anxiety about Covid-19; students, teachers, and principals struggling with workloads; and disengagement from learning and falling attendance rates.

"We've had less disruption in terms of many other jurisdictions up to date, but that doesn't mean that that hasn't still been quite significant. There are strategies schools can do and are doing which means it's not a given that [the pandemic] will lead to worse outcomes."

Shinoda points to ERO's finding in August that tailored initiatives targeting at-risk Auckland NCEA students learning in lockdown worked well. Among the successful programmes were those provided by Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, formerly known as The Correspondence School. It connected students with mentors, provided online learning and summer school, and established pop-up sites in community venues.

Other strategies ERO suggests include flexible learning to help school leavers who go into the workforce re-engage with their education in ways that suit them; having plans to support student wellbeing, such as by teaching resilience and self-regulation; and using assessment tools to find out where students are at.

But 2022 may test schools' resilience again, Shinoda says, especially if more and more staff have to isolate because of Omicron.

READ MORE: Back to the classroom for many as schools brace for Omicron

In February, Auckland's Tamaki College and Nelson College were among the schools that opted to move classes online because of an increasing number of cases and close contacts. By the end of February, 900 schools reported they had found a case among their students or staff in the past 10 days.

The Ministry of Education said in late February negative rapid antigen tests could be used to allow staff who are close contacts to return to work if there aren't enough teachers to supervise students. But some principals told Newsroom the rollout of those tests is lagging.

Teachers also aren't considered critical workers under the Government's 'test to return to work' scheme. Education Minister Chris Hipkins - who's also Covid-19 Response Minister - says that's because he doesn't want to send people who potentially have Covid-19 back to work unless there isn't another option.

Responding to queries from 1News, a Ministry of Education spokesperson says it doesn’t hold data about the number of schools closed because of Covid-19 because they aren’t required to declare whether they’re teaching online or in the classroom.

"Given the current climate, how does online sound?"

Days before 1News was scheduled to meet 18-year-old Eliana Competente and 17-year-old Sanat Singh, Omicron forced the entire country into the Red setting of the traffic light system.

Like many others around the country, moving plans online because of Covid-19 is part of the new normal for the former Lynfield College head students.

They both remember feeling confused and shocked when the country first moved to Alert Level 4 in March 2020.

"I didn't know how to really react or respond or feel," Competente says.

"Suddenly, there's a lockdown and then we're at home. Everything is trying to be online and you're suddenly just learning by yourself.

"To be honest, that made it quite difficult for me to be engaged with schoolwork.”

Omicron is weighing on their minds as they start university - psychology and law for Competente, engineering and global studies for Singh. They'll both experience their first semesters at Auckland University largely online.

But Competente says she worries more about the impact the virus may have on people in vulnerable positions than her own learning. She and Singh say they and their peers were lucky at decile 6 Lynfield College - most got by. But speaking to other head students around Auckland, they know the same isn't true everywhere.

"There are communities that have been crying out for support throughout this entire pandemic, and they've still not gotten it," Singh says.

"Weighing that up against whatever disruptions I might face in university, I don't think they begin to compare. My learning has been disrupted for the past two years of my life. So at this point, what's another year of disrupted learning versus all of the actual serious challenges people face?"

READ MORE: Government’s Covid-19 policies see inequality increase - commentator

Covid-19 did still change their plans. Things came close to home in the August Delta outbreak when hundreds of Lynfield College students had to self-isolate after a Covid-19 case was found in their school.

"With so many students having to adapt to learning from home, it was difficult for us not to feel responsible for their wellbeing, for their care," Competente says.

She says homework has been the last thing on some students’ minds “because they just didn’t have the privilege to focus on that”.

"They had other pressing issues they had to deal with… so how do you expect them to suddenly just come back to school and have everything OK and have them understand all of the content [taught over lockdown]?"

"As soon as the pandemic hit, suddenly, all of the inequalities or bad things about the way our world works, those cracks started widening," Singh adds.

He and Competente found more value in helping others than focusing on their own schoolwork.

They're also thankful they had patient and empathetic teachers as they prepared for their exams in 2021. They both credit their teachers for helping them make it through.

Still, Singh feels increasingly disillusioned with the education system.

"I think it's just a long-standing complaint with education. It's like, we're facing a life-threatening scenario, but we're more focused on trying to live life like normal than re-evaluating why we do education and do the things that we do this way."

Like Competente and Singh, Seuula and Li are also facing the prospect of completing most of their first semester at Auckland University online.

Despite her dislike for online learning, Seuula says it takes her a step closer to fulfilling her dream of becoming a nurse.

"I lost a loved one when I was young. And, you know, being that age, not being able to do something or not knowing what to do… it really motivated me to become a nurse and be a help for others so that they don't feel what I felt being guilty of losing a loved one.

"Also, no one in my family is a nurse because [my siblings are] all taking different career pathways. Wanting to be the first person in your family would be a really good way to uplift my family. That's my goal."

South Auckland born-and-bred Li hopes to give back to the community who raised him when he completes his engineering degree.

"Nice buildings, nice infrastructure. But, that's in the long run, of course."

For now, Li says he wants to see more support from the Ministry of Education for stressed, overworked, and exhausted teachers.

Competente, Singh, Seuula, and Li say they want the ministry and NZQA to better engage with students who know first-hand the challenges they face and the solutions they need.

"Throughout the pandemic, even with changes to NCEA, I don't think there was much consultation done with many students. Or, if there was, it wasn't really made all that public,” Singh says.

One change to NCEA in 2021 that caused some disagreement among students was the pushing back of exam dates by two weeks. While some welcomed the move, close to 25,000 signed a petition calling for its reversal, saying the extension meant some students had to change their work plans and that it drew out what was already a stressful revision period.

NZQA chief executive of assessment Andrea Gray says decisions had to be made quickly, which meant they "were not able to canvas students' views".

But NZQA did speak with other representatives from schools who "understand the needs of students and are always mindful of the impact decisions will have on them", she adds.

She says provisional NCEA results in 2021 were slightly lower than in 2020, but higher than in 2019.

"This suggests the interventions put in place to support students were largely successful."

Gray says there are many ways for students to provide feedback to NZQA, including through its website, surveys, and student voice groups.

Singh says students want to have a say in what it means to study and be a young person in the 21st century.

"The question of where we can do better? I think I don't know what better looks like because those conversations never happened.”

He says studying in the pandemic made him think about the other “rather existential” issues young people will have to face in the coming years, like climate change.

"The ways we approach each of those problems didn't change through the course of the pandemic, which meant that little to no progress was made in making those things better.

“We had this opportunity to evaluate what's going on in all those areas and start building meaningful action from it. But we couldn't because we were focused on working through the course of the pandemic to get back to normal."