Biggest challenge for children was the lack of social connections (60%)
Children are more pessimistic about closing learning gaps than parents
The largest learning gaps occurred in Maths (30%) despite Maths being the most tutored subject (64%)
Almost half of the time spent on education was online last year
Children spent an average of 18 hours a week on education outside of class time, five hours more than parents thought
Vienna - November 30, 2021 - In the first Education Report published by the online tutoring provider GoStudent, in collaboration with Kantar Market Research, the areas of learning, online learning, and tutoring behaviour, from the perspectives of both parents and children in Europe, are examined. This year’s report features a dedicated section on “learning in a pandemic world”, exploring how parents and their children see challenges and the severity of learning gaps differently. The data for the report was acquired by an online survey (CAWI) conducted in seven European markets, including: The UK, Spain, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Austria. In total, 6,276 parents and 5,767 children¹, aged between 10 and 18, were surveyed from October 1 to 16, 2021.
Learning in a pandemic world: The biggest challenge for kids was the lack of social connections
80 percent of the children surveyed experienced challenges in the last school year. They suffered most from a lack of social connection (60%), followed by difficulty concentrating in an online classroom environment (36%) and difficulty understanding subject material online (26%). The results of the survey showed that parents saw these challenges as less severe than their children. Girls (62%) suffered slightly more from a lack of social contact than boys (59%). This problem was perceived as the worst amongst children in Italy (70%).
Children are more pessimistic about overcoming learning gaps than their parents
Almost half of the surveyed children recognised learning gaps in one or more subjects. The highest amount of learning gaps were experienced by boys between the ages of 13-15, who have employed parents. While 41% of parents think that the learning gaps caused by the pandemic won’t continue, only ⅓ of kids are confident that they will catch-up this academic year. The largest learning gaps occurred in Maths (30%), followed by English (18%). While boys experienced more severe learning gaps, they were also more optimistic about their ability to close them during the current academic year. 37% of boys believe that the learning gaps will not continue, vs. 33% of girls. Children who receive tutoring (46%) are more likely to believe that they will catch up than those who don’t (31%).
Education Wellbeing index²: Fathers felt better than Mothers, kids felt worse than their parents realised
Overall, fathers / male caregivers (73) had a higher Education Wellbeing Index compared to mothers / female caregivers (70). Fathers scored higher than mothers across all wellbeing attributes, except the interaction with their children on schoolwork. Children rated their Educational Wellbeing Index (64) lower than their parents (69) rated them. In general, boys felt better than girls, scoring higher in satisfaction with school grades, motivation to do schoolwork and confidence at school.
Parents and their children’s education: The more involved, the more satisfied
Parents who have higher involvement with their child’s education, are more satisfied with their school performance. The average Parental Involvement Index³ was 69, parents with an index above 80 also scored higher in the parental satisfaction score⁴ (4.2 out of 5). Comparing countries, parents in Spain were most involved in their children’s education and Austrian parents the least. When it comes to the satisfaction of parents with their children’s performance in school, parents in France were the most satisfied, and parents in Germany the least.
Almost half of the time spent on education was online last year
9 out of 10 kids experienced online learning during the last academic year, and almost half of their time spent on education was online last year. Germany had the highest online learning ratio⁵ of 56 % and Spain the lowest with 33%. On average, children spent 18 hours a week on education outside of class time⁶, 5 hours more than parents thought. Girls spent one hour more per week on learning outside of class time (18 hours) than boys (17 hours). Children in Italy spent the most time learning outside of school (21 hours) and children in the Netherlands spent the least time on studying outside of school (14 hours).
Acceptance and use of Artificial intelligence (AI) in education is still in its infancy
Only 18 % of parents stated that schools offered techniques around adaptive learning⁷ and AI during classes. Only 5% of parents provide AI-based learning tools for their children to study with outside of school. While more than half of parents in Spain are in favour of using AI in their child’s education, France and the UK bring up the rear, with only ⅓ of parents in favour. According to parents, AI-based learning should be implemented to create learning environments based on children’s needs (62%), rather than to track the performance of children.
Even though 85% of children see the value of having a tutor, only 16% of them received tutoring during the last school year
However, ⅓ of parents intend to provide tutoring for their children during this school year. The top reasons for children to have a tutor are to receive a better understanding of a subject (60%), to get better grades (48%) and the ability to ask questions (40%). The top reasons for parents to get a tutor for their children are to receive help on a subject and to boost their children’s motivation and ability to learn during school lockdown. The reasons for parents to choose online over offline tutoring for their children are that it saves time (39%), is cost-effective (35%), provides interactive learning features (34%) and offers children a flexible learning schedule (34%). Children who received tutoring were more open to online and a mix of online and in-person tutoring (43%). For parents, the most important trait of a tutor is reliability (70%), followed by subject knowledge (67%) and, when it comes to soft skills, parents rate the importance of a respectful relationship (59%) and the motivation of the child (58%) most highly. The average price of one tutoring session is 25 Euro, while the Netherlands have the cheapest cost of tutoring (15.5 Euro). Getting a tutor in the United Kingdom is the most expensive (33.5 Euro) across the countries surveyed in Europe.
“GoStudent’s mission is to innovate education, making it as accessible and relatable as possible for current and future generations. We see it as our responsibility to keep exploring and assessing how education is changing, so that we can offer the very best support. The GoStudent Education report provides a comprehensive overview of how parents and students across Europe perceive their children’s or their own education, including attitudes towards schooling and tutoring, and we hope these learnings will be valuable not only to us, but more broadly, too. With this report, which we aim to publish on an annual basis, we want to uncover the trends that are shaping how we learn, and make them widely accessible.” says Felix Ohswald, CEO and co-founder of GoStudent.
“For the GoStudent Education Report we created indexes that measure several factors and enable us to compare them between countries and demographic profiles within countries. For example, the Parental Education Wellbeing Index indicates how well parents felt about supporting their children in school matters. Our aim is to measure these scores over a period of time and to discover which dynamics in the educational sphere will affect them”, says Esra Dalgic, Market Research Expert at GoStudent.
Press photos and infographics can be downloaded here.
You can download the European results of the GoStudent education report here.
About the GoStudent Education Report - The GoStudent Education Report examines parents’ and students’ experiences with education, including schooling and tutoring, over the last academic year. The report was created by the online tutoring provider GoStudent in collaboration with the independent market research institute Kantar Research, and features representative data collected from 12,000 participants in seven European countries. GoStudent aims to publish the Education Report on an annual basis to identify changes and trends in education from the perspectives of children and their parents.
About GoStudent - GoStudent is a platform for online teaching and is the future of tutoring. The EdTech company was founded in Vienna in 2016 by Felix Ohswald (CEO) and Gregor Müller (COO). Currently, GoStudent is operational in 22 markets. Via its platform, GoStudent provides paid, one-to-one, video-based tuition to primary, secondary and college-aged students in 30+ subjects, using a membership model. GoStudent employs more than 1,000 people and has opened 18 international offices. Over 950,000 tutoring units are booked each month. Currently, GoStudent works with +11,000 international tutors. To date, GoStudent has raised more than €291m. Investors include Left Lane Capital, DN Capital, Coatue and DST Global. Learn more on www.gostudent.org
Footnotes:
¹Gender Split: 14 out of 5767 children aged 10-18 that participated in the survey responded that they identify as non-binary. These findings have been omitted, as the figures are not large enough (0.4% in total) in each market to offer a representative sample. This data can, however, be shared on request.
²Parent Educational Wellbeing Index: defines the degree to which parents felt positive about themselves in relation to their children’s education. Children Educational Wellbeing Index: combines how children felt about their education from a parents’ perspective, as well as from the children’s own perspectives.
³Parental Involvement Index: This index shows how involved parents were with their children’s education.
⁴Parental Satisfaction Score: defines how satisfied parents were with their child’s school performance.
⁵Online Learning Index: describes the number of children who experienced online learning during the last academic year.
⁶The class time includes in-school as well as online-classes at home conducted by the school.
⁷Adaptive Learning: is defined as a way of learning by the use of online programs that enable interactive learning via a data-driven and AI-based (artificial intelligence) approach that adjusts pace and exercises according to responses and ability.
Media contacts: Kristina Bassett I Director PR & Communications at GoStudent I M: +44 786 914 3214 I E: kristina.bassett@gostudent.org