New Research For Royal Commission Highlights Impact Of COVID-19 On Reading And Maths In Aotearoa

New research from NZCER shows that COVID-19 impacts on reading and maths learning in Aotearoa are modest by global standards, but disruption was greater in Auckland and schools with more socioeconomic barriers.

The report, COVID-19 and student achievement in Aotearoa New Zealand, was produced for the COVID-19 Lessons Learned Royal Commission | Te Tira Ārai Urutā, and analyses more than 850,000 Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) for reading and mathematics between 2020 and 2023.

It found that national mathematics achievement dropped in 2020 and again in 2021, but returned to pre-pandemic averages by 2022. National reading achievement also declined during 2020 and 2021, but had not returned to pre-pandemic averages by 2023.

Aotearoa matches global trends in that areas with longer closures – in our case, Auckland – experienced more decline in maths and reading. Schools with more socioeconomic barriers, as well as Māori and Pasifika learners, had a slightly sharper decline and slower recovery to pre-pandemic averages.

“Putting us in a global context, the impact of COVID-19 on learning was fairly modest, in keeping with our shorter school closures” explains David Coblentz, Senior Statistician at NZCER.

“But we can see where the impact was heightened, and found two key implications. First, there may remain a need for sustained and targeted mathematics catchup for highbarrier Auckland schools and Māori and Pasifika learners. Reading may also need a closer look – achievement levels were likely already in decline preCOVID, so the decline shown here may not be attributable to school closures alone.”

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