NEPS - Corona & Education, Report No. 1.
"Corona-related school closures... - and now everything works digitally?"

Due to the temporary school closures between March and May, schools and teachers were faced with the challenge of using exclusively digital ways of imparting knowledge without any advance notice. And parents also unexpectedly had to take on the task of supporting their children's now independent learning at home. In the NEPS supplementary survey, among others, 1,452 parents of 8th grade students were asked about their self-assessment. Although most parents felt up to the task, differences emerged depending on educational background. For example, nearly one-third of parents without an academic background said they were poorly able or unable to support their children. In addition, around 13 percent of the children had inadequate or no access at all to the technology required for digital teaching. Here, however, the educational background did not play a role.

These and other results of the evaluation can be found in the detailed report "Corona-related school closures... - and now everything works digitally?" (in German language), which is available for download here with further background information on the survey.

NEPS - Corona & Education, Report No. 2.
"Working life in the Corona crisis: what role do educational differences play?"

Educational differences also played a major role in working life during the Corona Restrictions period. For the supplementary survey, employed persons from different employee and age groups were interviewed. Among other things, it was found that access to the home office depended strongly on the level of education: The lower the level of education, the less frequently employed persons were able to work from home. Young employees with a low level of education brought up the rear in this respect. At the same time, the majority of respondents felt well supported by their employers. Nevertheless, across all groups, it is evident that the Corona pandemic has already reinforced existing educational inequalities in working life in the short term. It is to be feared that social inequalities in employment security and working conditions will also worsen in the long term.

These and other results of the evaluation can be found in the detailed report "Working life in the Corona crisis: What role does education play?" and in a corresponding LIfBi Working Paper. Both are available for download here with further background information on the survey.

Through the supplementary survey in May and June, the researchers determined the current experiences and impressions of NEPS participants in the period between the start of the restrictions and the first relaxations during the Corona crisis and thus made them useful for educational research. The data were weighted and poststratified so that the conclusions are generalizable.

"We have been following participants for many years," said Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, director of the National Education Panel. "By including these additional surveys in our ongoing surveys, we can gain important insights into the impact the Corona pandemic has left on people's educational biographies and how it will continue to affect them in the future."

In the supplementary surveys, four major topics of everyday life were queried: current employment situation, everyday life and learning, trust in politics and society, and health and well-being. In addition, participants were also asked about their expectations for the future and their willingness to take risks, as well as about changes in their use of learning opportunities and media in school and in private and professional further education. All the data collected in this way can be used to obtain a differentiated picture of the Corona impact on the respondents' educational biographies.

Press release (in German language)