Kids who failed exams during Covid at-home learning struggling more in higher education

School students who failed their exams during the coronavirus crisis are more likely to encounter problems later in their further education, Trouw reported based on an evaluation by the Ministry of Education.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were often forced to close, and students had to cope with online learning, which caused some to struggle. The government, therefore, decided to show leniency. In the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, all students could get an extra resit to correct a failing grade. Schools could also disregard the grade for one exam subject.

But this leniency had consequences later in students’ education. Students who used the relaxed rules were more likely to drop out during their further education. This was the case in vocational, university of applied sciences, and university education.

At the pre-university (VWO) level, students who used the relaxed rules were twice as likely to drop out (8 percent) or switch courses (37 percent) as students who graduated without the leniency measures (4 percent and 19 percent, respectively). Even students who barely managed to graduate on their own performed better in further education than those who needed the relaxed rules.

“Lowering the bar isn’t always beneficial,” the Ministry concluded, according to Trouw. The Ministry intends to learn lessons from this experience for the next crisis - relaxing standards at one level of education can lead to problems at another level, and school closures should be avoided as much as possible.