Covid for under 12s was a disaster. We might as well have fed those children lead for the mental retardation we've caused them for the rest of their lives. Over a virus that killed precisely none of them.

We can at least be thankful none of those skills are learned at school.

Here's a report from where I live (Wales, UK):

https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2022-04/a...

Overall attendance is continuing to decline in the single-digit range, and there are double-digit declines in attendance amongst selected disadvantaged groups.

Universal compulsory education is a collective affirmation of the value of education in a society, and the extent to which schooling is “taken seriously” is a reflection of how deeply the society embraces this value.

If you neglect a kid for a year, then we don't expect the damage to persist only for a year. Why would this be any different?

The damage comes from the tiering of education, where anyone not "ready" at the next stage doesn't get access to it at all. That structure is a policy decision we've made, not a necessary fact of education or life.

Now if you're arguing that the way we test if someone is ready for the next level of a given field is done poorly, that's different and there could be a strong case for it depending on the field and school.

And even if you could your second point is moot, it is a social construct but it will stay like that, so it end up being a fact of life for everyone.

I don't think the problem has anything to do with country vs country loss or competition. It's about children simply losing out on essential education and development, which makes life a bigger struggle going forward. It's especially important for young children, where language and fundamental math acquisition are incredibly important and harder to establish as they age.

It's easy to teach someone calculus if they've had exposure to math since they were 5. It's hard to teach someone algebra if they weren't sitting down with an actual teacher and learning basic arithmetic until 3rd grade. Early math is a hands-on thing and parents often aren't good at teaching it (many being math-phobes themselves).

And that's not even getting into a lack of face-to-face interaction with peers among young kids.

I have to wonder if social anxiety and similar issues will be more common among kids who went through strict covid lockdowns.

What are you talking about? The headline says learning loss is a _global_ disaster. Who are the "global peers" of a population that consists of all the world's children?