Some children are still suffering the consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns and without intervention, this will incur a “huge cost” to themselves and society, according to journalist and author Harriet Sergeant.
Speaking to Lee Hall of NTD’s “British Thought Leaders” programme, Ms. Sergeant said many children “have had long term damage because of absence from schools. And this shows in the so-called ghost children—the children that have just dropped off the school rolls.”
“Before lockdown, there was a level figure about 60,000 who were persistently absent from school, but after lockdown, it’s leaped up to 140,000,” she said.
“Persistently absent” is a category used by the Department for Education (DfE), which means a child is absent from school for more than 10 percent of the time.
The percentage of pupils who were persistently absent more than doubled from 10.36 percent before the pandemic to 22.3 percent in the year 2021/22. And it’s currently an estimated 20.5 percent.
Some 1.9 percent of pupils were severely absent in the year 2022/23, meaning they have missed more than half of the school days, compared to 0.81 percent before the lockdowns.
Too Nervous v Too Angry
One school counsellor told Ms. Sergeant his children who had been absent fall into two groups, “There’s the children that are just too anxious to leave their room ... and then there’s the children that you can’t get back into the house,” she said.These children are “so angry and aggressive they’re out on the street, they’re joining gangs, and they’ve just dropped out completely.”
A young girl in a “pretty good” comprehensive school in a leafy suburb told Ms. Sergeant about a boy in her school.
“He vanished from school during lockdown. And after they all went back to school, he suddenly reappeared by the local shopping mall, sitting on a dirty piece of cardboard. And she said, ‘He looked kind of homeless, and we’re all very shocked to see him there,’” Ms. Sergeant recalled.
According to Ms. Sergeant, children brought food, money, and clothing to the boy, who had been popular at school, and the teacher managed to coax him back to school after hearing about his situation.
“But then he got so angry—and this is typical of a lot of children I interviewed—because he had missed so much, so he felt like a complete idiot because he had no idea what was going on, and he left and hasn’t been seen again.”
Another boy who didn’t get along with his stepfather became stuck with him because all the activities, such as football, disappeared during lockdowns, and he also ended up running away and dropped out completely.
When a child disappears, it’s “very difficult” to reach them again, she said.
“Once these kids have got out onto the street, nobody is actually responsible for them, it’s quite extraordinary,” she said.
“The authorities don’t hear from them or see them again till they’re 18 and have gone to prison. That’s the first time they come across them.”
Ms. Sergeant befriended a teenage gang around 15 years ago during her research for a report and subsequently wrote a book about the experience.
Speaking of the gang members she befriended, Ms. Sergeant said they had dropped out of school at around 14 and have been “in and out of prison ever since, at great cost to themselves and to society.”
“And this is what lies in wait for these young kids that are on the streets. This is the fate that awaits these young kids,” she said, adding that 90 percent of young offenders and 60 percent of all prisoners play truant.
In the east end of London, Ms. Sergeant many first-born children of African heritage, who didn’t join gangs but never went back to school after having to stay at home to look after their younger siblings during the pandemic because their mothers were essential workers such as cleaners.
Teachers Matter
Children in most deprived areas were affected the most, but teachers’ work ethic also made huge differences, according to stories Ms. Sergeant has heard.One teenage boy she interviewed was a “very driven, very bright” and “very competitive” boy from a nice school.
“When lockdown first happened, he said, ‘Fine, I’ll smash this, it‘ll be fine.’ And he started sending in all his work,” she said. “But his whole mood changed because ... a term went past and his work was never marked.”
“And he described so vividly to me how he gradually went down ... into this deep depression,” had “lost all enjoyment in life,” and began listening to “really angry grime music,” which he had listened to occasionally, all the time, Ms. Sergeant said.
Luckily, this boy has “very supportive parents” who could also afford therapy for him, but it took a long time for him to get back to being his former self, Ms. Sergeant said.
In contrast, a headmaster she spoke to rushed back to school from France when he saw the first lockdown coming, and quickly set up a system so children could submit their work and get their marked work back within hours.
“He told me he didn’t lose one single child. So that’s how important that kind of support was,” she said.
Besides older children, young children who began primary schools after the lockdowns turned up “in nappies,” with “dummies in their mouth, unable to speak, not potty trained, unable even to hang their coats up when they arrived,” she said.
Ms. Sergeant the usual help for new mothers, including health visitors, mother and baby groups, and GPs, all disappeared during lockdowns so they had no idea whether their babies were putting on enough weight, what milestones there were, or whether their babies’ were developing normally.
Children who grew up with “a very nervous, depressed, anxious mother” will then “arrive at school very clingy and difficult,” Ms. Sergeant said.
She mentioned a pair of twins in the reception year who “both vomited” every morning, saying they were “completely discombobulated” by being “suddenly” separated from their mother after being cloistered with her all the time.
Referring to increases in mental health problems, Ms. Sergeant said it’s a huge cost to have “so many young people just disengaging.”
“So at the moment there’s one on 10 people on disability benefit,” she said.
“We can’t have our young people just simply checking out of life. Apart from anything else, I need them there adding my pension. So it’s a huge cost to them, to these poor young people, and to the rest of society.”
Ms. Sergeant said we need to check what help young people need now, including with education “so they can catch up.”
Speaking of overwhelming calls for lockdowns during the pandemic, Ms. Sergeant said we tend to be driven by “the sort of majority screaming and shouting and stomping their feet.”
Meanwhile, lockdown sceptics were “looked on as a bit of a nutter,” she said.
“Perhaps we should have listened to the nutters a bit more.”
