Knowledge is power, goes the famous saying. Without bragging, accessible education is one of the key factors in driving progress, improving the quality of living, and fighting poverty across the world in general.
Increased accessibility of education has already borne fruit. So many young people from third-world countries can study abroad to obtain skills and knowledge they will further use to help their communities.
Nevertheless, poverty is still one of the key problems in the world and it doesn’t seem that more accessible education has brought us any closer to eliminating it. Moreover, despite all the attempts, getting a quality education in the era of “easy” knowledge poses an even bigger problem than before.
In this article, we tried to find the answer to these urgent questions. Does education help in fighting poverty? And if yes, why haven’t we defeated this enemy yet?
How Does Education Help In Fighting Poverty?
While education isn’t something that can fix the problems of the poor in a blink of an eye, it can give them resources to drag themselves out of that poverty pit. There’s no better way to obtain skills and knowledge than by studying and observing a mentor. And if education for many third-world countries was unavailable before, today people have schools, books, and some even digital resources for learning – from such basic skills as reading and writing to more complicated notions like the laws of thermodynamics. Just having the skills or information won’t keep you fed. However, they can be used to get a better job, build a career, or even move abroad to upgrade qualifications and claim better salaries and living conditions.
Furthermore, many families suffer from poverty because of the old-fashioned stereotypes and gender inequality where girls and women have no right to study or work, and in doing so help their families. As a basic human right, education aims to destroy inequality at every level – from gender to class discrimination. Not only does it help communities to catch up with the times but also allows the most vulnerable social layers to make the difference.
Finally, due to better accessibility, education doesn’t have to be the privilege of one – even for the poor family. A more skilled and educated person can teach the entire family reading, writing, calculating, and even more complicated things like computer skills, foreign languages, etc.
Why Poverty Hasn’t Been Defeated Yet?
Nevertheless, poverty remains one of the most relevant and urgent problems of the modern era. No matter how hard we try, financial inequality and class discrimination seem to grow stronger and prosper. While education does help many poor families improve their living conditions, it’s far from being a one-and-only solution to eliminating poverty. And there are a few reasons for it.
Up to the present day, children are the guarantee of well-being for many poor families. The more kids you have, the more hands can work in the fields, cultivate the land, and gather the crops. Sending children to school means less force that can work to feed the entire family. It’s clear that in the long run education has many advantages. It’s the opportunity to learn valuable skills to earn a better living in the future. For many, unfortunately, waiting – especially when there are no actual guarantees – is an unaffordable luxury.
Furthermore, just the fact that a person can go to school doesn’t necessarily mean they will receive a quality education. Many schools are poorly funded so they can’t afford up-to-date learning resources, technologies, and the most qualified teachers and mentors like private educational institutions. And while any education is better than none, it’s unlikely that students from such schools will have the same job opportunities as their wealthier mates.
And this poses a new challenge for poor families. More skilled candidates get better jobs. However, wealthier parents – with all their resources and connections – are not going to lag. With all the educational accessibility, they go above and beyond to provide their kids with even better training opportunities, internships, and travel experiences. So, although you allegedly have equal opportunities, in reality, it’s far from this.
Finally, poverty isn’t always the product of bad education. The terrible ecologic situation, criminal lawlessness, and prejudice are just a few reasons that force millions of people to live below the poverty line. “Education must go hand in hand with other transformations”, is sure Amanda Nielsen, a social expert from Pro-Papers. “It should be a complex campaign that would include fighting corruption, restoring the power of law, and improving the ecologic situation.”
Bottom Line
Popularizing education and making it accessible for everyone is no doubt an important and necessary movement. For many, this is the only chance to improve their living and make a contribution to the community.
However, it can’t be viewed as the key to fighting poverty for so many reasons. Some voluntarily refuse from studying, others can’t afford to go to school because they have to work. For many, however, education is still inaccessible.
In any case, the problem of poverty is never the problem of the deficit but rather of unwise and unfair allocation of money. And unfortunately, it can’t be solved with popularizing education alone.
