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Impact of external factors on teaching capacity
School leaders were asked to what extent they thought their school’s capacity to provide instruction was being hindered by external factors. These factors were natural disasters, pandemics (such as Covid-19), and epidemics (such as measles). They could respond with ‘To a large extent’, ‘to a moderate extent’, To a small extent’, or ‘Not at all’.
Students from schools affected by external factors
Table SLT3.2 shows the percentage of students in Small Island States whose school leader reported that their school’s capacity to provide instruction was hindered ‘To a large extent’ or ‘To a moderate extent’ by an external factor.
Pandemics hindered instruction in schools attended by 20% of students in Small Island States. For all PILNA countries, this percentage ranged from 0% to 76%. This challenge affected the greatest proportion of students out of those reported on in Small Island States and the region, on average.
In Small Island States, natural disasters hindered instruction in schools attended by 16% of students, while epidemics hindered instruction in schools attended by 10% of students.
What does this mean?
Twenty per cent of students in Small Island States attended schools where instruction was hindered ‘To a moderate extent’ or ‘To a large extent’ by a pandemic. This was a lower proportion than the regional average.
Natural disasters and epidemics also affected the instruction of about one out of every ten students across the region to a large or moderate extent (natural disasters, 16%; epidemics, 10%).
This research shows that school leaders in Small Island States believe these external factors had a substantial impact on the instruction of students; however, the proportion of students who were affected by these factors was lower in Small Island States than for students in the region. It may be that pandemic and epidemic-related challenges were transmitted less to Small Island States than to other countries in the region.
