88 per cent of secondary schools students stated that their education had been adversely affected in 2020, due to having missed out on a conventional school year.
The online survey of over 1,000 secondary school students was carried our by Irish mobile education app, Exit Entry. It highlighted the challenges faced by Irish teens during 2020.
At an age when friendships are so important, over half of those surveyed (55 per cent) found not seeing their friends to be the most challenging aspect of Covid-19, ahead of home-schooling, the disrupted school year or anxiety about contracting the virus.
76 per cent said they went with the more traditional method of texting, while only 5 per cent of students have used Zoom to connect with friends.
For social media, TikTok currently reigns supreme as the social media app of choice with 58 per cent choosing it as their favourite, with Snapchat as second choice with 20 per cent.
When it comes to newspapers, TV and radio, 85 per cent of students said they are now more relevant to them.
Mental health supports
Between spending more time at home and keeping even an informal tally (81 per cent) of daily infection rates, teens are more in tune with the more traditional media sources for current affairs.
Regarding schoolwork there was a near 50/50 split, 52 per cent of students claimed their schools were good at communicating with them during lockdown while 48 per cent thought their school communicated poorly.
77 per cent confirmed they did their home-schooling assignments while 23 per cent admitted they did not do the assignments issued.
When it came mental health, 59 per cent of students felt they were supported with their mental health, with 41 per cent saying that they could have been supported better.
Family was the biggest source of support with 49 per cent of the vote, followed by friends as a close second.
73 per cent of students confirmed they have never been to their school guidance counsellor, however 74 per cent said they would use an app like Exit Entry to help them discover opportunities.
Chloe Anderson is a regional officer with the Irish Second Level Students Union and a 5th year student in Grennan College in Co. Kilkenny.
An advocate for Mental Health she spoke to Beat News about the pressures surrounding second level students in the country.
"The lack of clarity is definitely having a negative impact on students. 5th year students now have already lost over a month of school and it could go to be more, we don't know.
"There is definitely no substitute to in-person teaching. There is no way that online schooling would cater to every student.
"And that's not the departments fault, it's not the teachers and it's not the students fault. That's just the way it is."
"Its so important for students to be taking care of their welfare right now, taking time for themselves and to not have a constant stress of school. That could be taking up a new hobby, taking up regular exercise and putting structure to their day.
"It's so difficult to do that now and to find the motivation but I think it' so important for students.
"Their number one worry shouldn't be school and it shouldn't be the pandemic. The number one priority students should is themselves."
