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School closures and continuity of learning measures
School closures were common throughout the region in 2020 and 2021, including during the pandemics, epidemics and natural disasters referenced in the questionnaire. School leaders were asked to indicate how long their school was closed due to, respectively, a pandemic, epidemic, natural disaster, or other reason in these years. The duration for school closures was collected separately for each of these categories.
School closures
Seventeen per cent of students attended schools in Marshall Islands that were closed for 1 to 2 weeks because of natural disasters in the years 2020 and 2021. On the other hand, most students attended schools in Marshall Islands that were not closed due to COVID-19.
Regional average percentage of students attending schools that were closed for various reasons in 2020 and 2021, by school closure duration and reason for closure
- Standard errors appear in parentheses.
Continuity of learning measures
Along with the school closure information, school leaders were asked to indicate what measures were in place to provide continuity of learning during school closures. The measures that were asked about focused on the provision and availability of learning materials and communication with students and parents. Table SLT3.3 shows the percentage of students in Marshall Islands in PILNA 2021 who attended schools with specific continuity of learning measures being implemented, available but not implemented, and not available.
Communication via social media and/or by email with students and parents was the most common learning continuity measure, with 34% of students attending schools that implemented this measure. A further 16% of students attended schools that had access to this measure but did not implement it. Half the students (50%) attended schools where the measure was not available.
Measures to provide non-physical learning materials online – emailed materials, materials available on websites– were also implemented by schools. Three out of ten students attended schools where learning materials were emailed to students or parents (20%), or available to download from a website of portal (31%).
Physical materials were also used as a measure. One third of students attended schools where physical delivery of learning materials to a student’s home was used. Learning materials available for pick-up was also used as a learning continuity measure, but only for 10% of students.
The least common learning measures were learning materials being publicly broadcast; 9% of students attended schools where learning materials broadcast on radio was used as a learning continuity measure. This figure was even lower at 2% for learning materials broadcast on television
What does this mean?
School closures affected small but substantial numbers of students in Marshall Islands during 2020 and 2021. For those that it did affect, natural disasters were the most common. On average, 15% of students attended schools that closed for natural disaster related reasons. Countries experienced different levels of school closures for pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters, and other reasons.
To provide continuity of learning during these closures, many measures were made available for students in the region. The majority of these involved online learning materials, although there were significant efforts by some schools to provide learning continuity through physical resources.
The duration, significance and responses to school closures varied significantly across the region. Local context is therefore needed to fully understand the reasons behind the various learning continuity measures.
