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Old Globe

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

 In the greater world arena, poverty and education are inseparably                                                                                     linked. Part of this is due to the trade off between either paying for                                                                                  education or starting work early to help them afford basic needs. As                                                                                  people in poverty prefer gaining income as soon as possible, their     

children are stripped of the numeracy and literacy skills they                                                                                          would have gained from quality education.(ChildFund)

There are more students enrolling in school now than ever before with

developing countries having achieved  a 91% enrollment rate

in 2015 (Global Citizen)

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"Globally, there is a 9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling."

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-World Bank

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However, enrollment doesn’t mean completing an effective education program. Using the example of the USA where only 29.5% of men and 26.5% of women aged 25 and under had completed their highschool diploma(census bureau). The USA has a relatively high GDP per capita compared to many other undeveloped and challenged countries, and still faces challenges trying to educate its population.

What about countries like South Sudan with a whopping 82.3% percent of its population living in poverty (world bank)? Without subsidised or free education, the majority of the population’s children will not get the chance to earn a quality living, gain skills necessary to excel in the workforce and to move away from the immense dangers of poverty.

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Uzbekistan vs Chad

There is a great contrast between the literacy levels of both these countries, making them the best to show differing actions to solve poverty’s detrimental effects on education.They are both developing countries yet Uzbekistan has been able to achieve the highest literacy rate at a whopping 99.9% where as Chad’s rate is still 22.3%.(world population review)

 

Chad has a great problem in both enrolling students and ensuring those enrolled complete a quality education. Every one out of two school aged children are unable to go to school(unicef) and even out of those who complete primary education just 20% end up with a good grasp of the learning content taught.The fact that every three out of four Chadian children are taught by a teacher who has not gone beyond secondary level education is responsible for this.

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This problem was caused by a combination of Chad’s extremely low economic growth and development as well as additional pressures from large numbers of refugee children from their neighbouring countries(Unicef). Chad is therefore unable to generate enough revenue for quality subsidised education and training for educators. Additionally, the added population of school aged refugee children means that the facilities they already have will be too crowded to offer effective schooling.

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Certain organisations have stepped up to help Chad overcome this crisis. For example, UNICEF has programs working with the government to support schooling projects and develop professional training for teachers.(Unicef) However, without addressing the greater problem of more than 80% of the country living in poverty(macrotrends), school will not seem like a priority to various households. Thus prolonging the problem.

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Uzbekistan forms a great example of how a government can achieve extremely high literacy rates despite poverty. Uzbekistan had a recorded poverty rate of 99.01% and this is because of the country’s difficulties in economy management such as poor infrastructure and lack of global market integration.(worldbank)

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However, making schooling mandatory means that the country has to spend whatever little they have on educating the population. Uzbekistan offers 11 years of compulsory and fully subsidised education, meaning even students from completely impoverished homes have access to quality schooling. This also means that working class households attitudes toward education change causing it to be viewed as more of a necessity. The use of a state-led education system instead of privatisation will bring job opportunities and schooling access with minimal exploitation. Through successful government efforts, a very low income country like Uzbekistan was able to achieve 99.9% literacy rates, which sets the country up for immense economic growth.

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