WASHINGTON D.C.: The percentage of students graduating from U.S. high schools in 2021 plummeted in twenty states due to Covid disruptions, signifying that the pandemic might have ended almost 20 years of progress across the country in securing greater numbers of student diplomas, according to a study.

The decline in graduation figures was recorded, in spite of several states having eased standards, in a bid to assist pupils experiencing difficulties.

The outcomes, as per information reported by 26 states and evaluated by non-profit news organization Chalkbeat, emerge as the most recent worrisome scenario in U.S. education, which has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis.

“It does concern me. I do not ever want to see a decline. We’ve made such steady progress,” according to Chris Reykdal, the schools superintendent for the state of Washington, where the graduating percentage dipped by nearly half a percentage point, as reported by the Associated Press.

In 2020, when schools closed for the final months of the academic year, the majority of the states abandoned outstanding checklists for graduating and recorded a rise in the number of graduates. However, the situation was the opposite for students in 2021. A decline in the percentages of students graduating was recorded in 20 of the 26 states that furnished information.

Figures in Kansas, Colorado, and Georgia were not as severe while graduating rates plunged two points in North Dakota, Oregon and Illinois. A drop of at least one point has been reported in Maine, South Dakota, Indiana, Nevada, and West Virginia.