How education can help fight extreme poverty?
We believe that ensuring quality education for all is not only central to the achievement of all of the Global Goals but in particular, the goal to end extreme poverty. Access to high-quality primary education and supporting child well-being is a globally-recognized solution to the cycle of poverty. This is, in part, because it also addresses many of the other issues that can keep communities vulnerable.
We know that poverty affects education. Not every person without an education lives in extreme poverty. But most adults living in poverty today missed out on basic education. Their children are also more likely to miss out as well. This is a travesty because the main way that education affects poverty is that it can help to end it.
Education is often referred to as the great equalizer: It can open the door to jobs, resources, and skills that help a person not only survive, but thrive. This is why access to quality education is a globally-recognized solution to poverty. Education helps to remedy many of the other issues that can keep people, families, and even whole communities vulnerable to the cycle of poverty.
At its core, a quality education supports a child’s developing social, emotional, cognitive, and communication skills. They also gain knowledge and skills, and often at a higher level than those who don’t attend school. They can then use these skills to earn higher incomes and build successful lives.
According to UNESCO, if all students in low-income countries had just basic reading skills (nothing else), an estimated 171 million people could escape extreme poverty. If all adults completed secondary education, we could cut the global poverty rate by more than half. This is why the United Nations named quality education one of its Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030.
1. Education reduces poverty
2. Education increases individual earnings
3. Education reduces economic inequalities
4. Education promotes economic growth
*What does that have to do with poverty? Hear us out…
Sources: