A new study has found that hybrid learning for children using alternating school days leads to a significant reduction in the spread of community disease. The study, published in the BMC Public Health journal, says that total closure in favor of remote learning offers little added advantage over that hybrid option. The findings indicate that this research will help decision-makers in the event of another COVID-19 outbreak or one from a similar infectious disease. “At the start of the pandemic, when school closures were becoming the norm, many debated the pros and cons of this measure,” said researcher Pinar Keskinok of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.
“Do we get enough benefits to offset the social costs and impacts on education? This research suggests that there is a benefit in infection reduction, particularly in the absence of effective pharmaceutical interventions, and that most of the benefits can be obtained with hybrid approaches,” Keskinok said.
For the study, using an agent-based simulation model of COVID-19 spread, researchers estimated the impact of various school reopening strategies: complete closure, changing school days where a group Attended twice a week in person and the other on opposite days, only small children, and regular.
The results showed that compared to schools reopening with regular attendance, the percentage of infected population decreased by 13, 11, 9 and 6 percent with each respective strategy.
The findings were that some level of closure, only young children, alternating days, and remote remoteness entirely, provided a significant reduction in community-wide infections.
However, the advantage of complete shutdown over the hybrid approach was minimal, the researchers said.
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