After-Action Review to Safeguard Health and Well-Being of Adolescents Learning Online During School Closures in the Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Project in China to Inform Education Policy and Programme

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the world have switched to online education as early as February 2020 to contain the spread of the disease. While schools in China gradually have reopened since April, Beijing had to close schools again in June due to a resurgence of cases. Periodic school closing has become an important containment strategy until effective treatment and/or vaccination for COVID-19 becomes available. This study aims to 1) identify and investigate critical issues around health and well-being of adolescents confronted with abrupt changes in teaching delivery and learning environment, and 2) develop an after-action review for lessons learned and mitigation strategies. Employing ‘facilitated look backs’, a quality improvement method validated in previous epidemics, this project will involve schools and stakeholders in Beijing and Wuhan to generate evidence to inform a wider rollout across China and to other countries and for future epidemic responses.

Dr Tinghe Jin, University of East Anglia; Dr Kimberley Bartholomew, University of East Anglia; Dr Palitha Edirisingha, University of Leicester; Dr Ning Ji, Peking University Care Brain Health, China; Dr Xinyu Li, Zhejiang Normal University, China; Dr Kate Russell, University of East Anglia; Dr Chunfeng Xie, Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, China