BESA director praises education publishers' response to Covid-19

Caroline Wright has praised the education publishing sector for "adapting since day one" to support schools and students learning from home during the coronavirus lockdown.

In a webinar on the impact of Covid-19 on education publishing, organised by The Bookseller and chaired by Emma House, the director general of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) applauded the efforts of educational publishers. Wright said a significant number of presses have made their resources digitally available and free to use to support schools, with BESA research suggesting educational publishers have donated resources "estimated at around £30m since the end of February to the beginning of June" despite the "challenging" economic climate.

Jane Harley, policy and partnerships director at Oxford University Press, praised the efforts of teachers who have managed to "bridge the gap" between school and home. "What has been amazing is how schools have managed to reimagine and reinvent education in the past 14 weeks," she said. "And they've done that by taking on the simply enormous challenge of moving school into the home, moving connections and building connections with parents, creating a social hub, administering free school meals. They've put teaching and the school back into the heart of the community, and raised the profile and status of teaching." She added that post-pandemic, she hoped there would be the opportunity for teachers to "re-establish their status at the heart of education".

Lee Newman, publisher at Collins, said the focus was on "making resources available digitally and the speed of turning the requests around" to assist teachers. She said that many were faced with a "massive logistical challenge" as they continue to teach the children of key workers in schools while providing for those learning online, but that the "sector has really pulled together" to assist parents homeschooling their children.

Despite the upsurge in digital offerings, Harley said it was important to "not underestimate physical resources, especially for underprivileged kids". Amy Lankester-Owen, senior commissiong editor at Jessica Kingsley Publishing, predicted that in the future schools will need to purchase more printed items to manage better. "The hardest hit, in terms of schools and pupils, are the ones already the most disadvantaged socially and economically," she said, adding that the press had seen a spike in the number of books purchased about anxiety and managing mental health.

Newman warned that teachers supporting key worker children in schools in addition to online teaching were doing several jobs, including
managing staff and parents, and were more at risk of poor mental health.

Harley agreed that teachers are now under significantly more stress. "Pressure on teachers has been massive, so we've been hosting webinars on wellbeing and had about 1,500 people register, which does reflect the level of anxiety, but also the need to look after yourself", she said.

In addition to mental wellbeing, Wright suggested the a lack of resources was another cause for concern. She said "the pressure on school budgets before Covid was incredible. More funding is needed for schools to support them and the publishers. At the moment, only about 3% of a school's budget is spent on book resources."

Harley added: "Teachers have definitely reached out to publishers, particularly when asking how they can get the best out of the digital resources. We've been offering a huge amount of support around implementation, and we do a lot of data monitoring to anaylse how things are being used so when the kids go back to schools, they can get the best out of what they've invested in or got free access to."

Lankester-Owen said the pandemic had provided an opportunity for educational publishers to step up and cater for children with different educational needs, and accelerate the production of resources for "neuro-diverse publishing". She also suggested the pandemic had given publishers scope to think about books that more accurately reflect children's experiences, adding that Jessica Kinglsey Publishing would be adding more titles featuring trans children to their lists.

Along with Wright, Newman sees the longevity post-pandemic in a "blended" approach to education, citing the recent successes of online activities such as Joe Wick's "PE with Joe" Youtube series and Rob Biddulph's "Draw with Rob".

The webinar is now available to watch on Youtube.