This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example, new administrative data sources.
Seven in ten (71%) parents believe the social development of at least one of their children has been negatively impacted by the periodic closures of early childcare and educational facilities when COVID-19 related restrictions were in place.
Parents with a child attending a special school in March 2020 are most likely (82%) to report that school closures have had a negative impact on their child’s social development.
Almost seven in ten (68%) parents believe that at least one of their children’s education and learning has been negatively impacted by school closures.
Three-quarters (74%) of parents who rated their household financial situation as bad in March 2020 believe that primary school closures have negatively impacted their child’s education and learning. This compares with 61% of parents who rated their household financial situation as good at that time.
Nearly eight in ten (78%) respondents with a child in secondary school in March 2020 and who rated their financial situation as bad at that time feel that school closures have negatively impacted their child’s education and learning compared with two in three (66%) parents who rated their financial situation as good.
Almost four in ten (38%) parents who had a child in a post-secondary/third level institute in March 2020 believe that closures of these facilities will have a negative impact on their child’s future career prospects.
Seven in ten (69%) females who were in post-secondary/third level education in early 2020 believe that the closures of these facilities have had a negative impact on their education and learning compared with 61% of males.
Pulse Surveys are part of the CSO’s Take Part campaign and are published as part of our CSO Frontier Series.
They are usually short and take the ‘pulse’ of the nation about an issue at a point in time. Pulse Surveys allow the public to voluntarily take part in the CSO's work so that your story can become part of Ireland’s story. These types of surveys ensure that we can provide relevant, timely, and insightful data for the public.
This latest CSO Pulse Survey, COVID – Our Lives Five Years On, was carried out online from 16 January to 02 February 2025. It was open to anyone aged 18 years and over living in private households in Ireland. The online electronic questionnaire was available on the CSO.ie website and our social media platforms. This survey gathered 21,003 responses. The CSO wishes to thank all the participants who took time to answer this survey.
The results in this report reflect only the responses of those who completed this online survey. While results are calibrated to Irish population totals, the findings cannot be generalised as nationally representative, as the people who answered the questionnaire were not randomly chosen from the population and instead people volunteered to take part. As the survey was only available online, it does not represent views of those with no online activity. Even with these caveats, however, we believe this report provides valuable insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives five years on. See the Background Notes for further details on the survey methodology.
Survey respondents who had a child attending an early childcare or educational facility in March 2020 were asked what impact, if any, they believe that the periodic closure of these facilities in 2020 and 2021 have had on their child’s social development, education and learning, and future career prospects. Questions relating to the impact on their child’s education and learning were limited to parents of children who were in primary, secondary, or third level education and parents who had a child in a special school in March 2020. Questions relating to the perceived impact of education facility closures on their child’s future career prospects were limited to parents who had a child attending college at that time. Please note, references to third level includes post-secondary education, while references to college includes universities and all third level and post-secondary educational institutes.
Respondents who are currently aged 18 years and over and who were in secondary or third level education when COVID-19 restrictions were first introduced were asked what impact, if any, they believe the closure of schools and colleges has had on their own social development, education and learning, and future career prospects. Response options included “Positive impact”, “Negative impact”, “No impact” and “Can’t say/Don’t know”.
This is the first in a series of planned CSO releases to mark the impact of the pandemic on Irish society and on aspects of our economy five years after its onset. The next release, COVID-19 – Our Lives Five Years On: Impact on Employment, Earnings, and Air Travel will be published on 19 March 2025.
The third release, and the second based on the results of our Pulse Survey, COVID-19 – Our Lives Five Years On: Social Impact, will be published on 25 March 2025. It will explore how relationships, consumption habits, social behaviours, and social interactions with others have changed five years after the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 March 2025) published COVID-19 Our Lives Five Years On: Interrupted Education.
This is the first in a series of releases exploring the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on our society five years since the onset of the pandemic in Ireland (See Editor’s Note below).
This release provides the first set of results from the CSO’s Pulse Survey, COVID – Our Lives Five Years On. This online-only survey took place between 16 January and 02 February 2025, and explored how the COVID-19 pandemic is still impacting our lives five years on. Please note, this survey is not nationally representative as people volunteered to take part online (See About the Survey section below for more information).
This release, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the announcement of school closures on 12 March 2020, presents detailed results on how the periodic closing of early childcare and education facilities has impacted the social development, education and learning, and future career prospects of children and students five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These impacts are explored from both the parents’ perspective and the students’ perspective.
Commenting on the results of this release, Claire Burke, Statistician in the Income, Consumption and Wealth Division said: “On this day five years ago, all schools, colleges, and childcare facilities in Ireland were shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shutdown resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 Leaving Certificate and 2020–2021 Junior Certificate examinations. Earlier this year, we conducted an online CSO Pulse Survey, asking questions relating to the perceived impact of the periodic closures of these facilities in 2020 and 2021 of parents who had children in early childcare or education at that time and also of respondents who were students in secondary or third level education at that time.
Parents’ perspective
Seven in ten (71%) parents feel the social development of at least one of their children has been negatively impacted by the periodic closures of early childcare and education facilities when COVID-19 restrictions were in place. A similar proportion (68%) has a child whose education and learning has been negatively impacted.
Parents with a child attending special school in early 2020 are most likely to feel their child has been negatively impacted by school closures, both in terms of their social development and education and learning. Eight out of ten (82%) parents with a child who attended a special school in March 2020 believe that special school closures have negatively impacted on their child’s social development. The comparable rates for parents who had a child in primary school is 66% and 75% for those who had child in secondary school at that time.
Parents who rated the financial situation of their household in March 2020 as bad were most likely to believe that their children’s social development and education and learning have been negatively impacted by school closures. For example, 80% of less-well off parents believed that their primary school children’s social development has been negatively impacted compared with 62% of parents who reported the financial situation of their household as good.
Similar proportions of both mothers and fathers reported a negative impact on their child’s social development and education and learning for each education stage up until third level. For example, 74% of fathers and 76% of mothers with a child in secondary school believe that secondary school closures have negatively impacted their child’s social development.
Mothers with a child in third level education in March 2020 are more likely to believe that college closures have negatively impacted their child both socially and educationally. For example, nearly three in four (74%) mothers with a child attending a third level institute in March 2020 report that closures of these facilities have had a negative impact on their child’s social development. This is ten percentage points higher than the rate for fathers (64%). Similarly, 62% of mothers with a child attending a third level institute report a negative impact on their child’s education and learning which is nine percentage points higher than the comparable rate for fathers (53%).
Students’ perspective
Approximately three-quarters (76%) of respondents who were in secondary school when the COVID-19 restrictions were first introduced report that the closures of schools have negatively impacted their social development. The same proportion (76%) believe these school closures have had a negative impact on their education and learning.
Almost two in three (64%) respondents who were in third level education believe the college closures during the pandemic have had a negative impact on their education and learning. However, a higher proportion, 71%, believe they have had a negative impact on their social development.
Almost one in five (19%) respondents who were undertaking a third level course in March 2020 believe that the college closures have had a positive impact on their education and learning while 5% believe they have had a positive impact on their social development.
Female respondents are more likely to report that the closure of third level institutes have had a negative impact on their education and learning compared with male respondents (69% versus 61%).
Parents’ and students’ perceptions differ considerably on the impact of third level closures on students’ future career prospects. Respondents who were in third level education in March 2020 are five times more likely than parents, who had a child in third level education at that time, to believe future career prospects will be positively impacted by facility closures (16% and 3% respectively). Parents are more likely to believe their child’s future career prospects will either be negatively impacted (38% compared with 29% of students) or not impacted at all (42% compared with 35%).”