Poverty in Education

Poverty in Education

"If poor people have to be empowered to develop social capital, there is nothing like education." (Bonal, Tarabini & Rambla, 2018, p. 143)

Figure 1. Three Dimensions of Poverty

Perhaps one of the most cogent lessons that will emerge after the end of this pandemic (it will end!) is the importance of our individual and collective health. I doubt very highly that it is something people will take for granted as they may have done previously; but I could be wrong. We could easily revert to old patterns, bad habits and harmful behaviors - my hope though is that it will not be case. Another important highlight is the issue of poverty and if you consider the image above you will see the three dimensions as articulated by the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 2018). Interestingly, the Index reveals that about 1.3 billion people across 105 countries exist in acute poverty and of that number, half are children below the age of 18. If we think back to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, it is easy to see why health would assume primacy of place, since without that, the other elements would not appear quite as urgent. Granted, it underscores the connection among the three levels and the complexity in determining poverty levels. 

Specifically, as we consider education and poverty, there is an inextricable link between the two. The international definition of poverty is typically limited to one's income ability to secure food to survive (Tilak, 2002), which therefore, excludes other dimensions such as those included above. Research has shown how useful education is at breaking the cycle of poverty and simultaneously, we know that those persons who exist in poverty, are less likely to have access to quality education (Van der Berg, et al, 2011) which in turn impacts their social mobility goals. A good education is also contingent upon a family's social and cultural capital (Bordieu, 1986) as well as the depth and quality of their networks (Fischer, 1982; Lin, 2000) which are invariably leveraged to expand their children's experiences and opportunities. This reality affirms Bonal et al's (2018) argument that there is a recursive relationship between poverty and education; in other words, each affects the other. 

If we examine the two layers of education shown in the figure (years of schooling and school attendance), it is not difficult to imagine how poverty affects both elements. More explicitly, though persons are poor, we must accept that the ways in which different persons experience poverty will vary depending upon context. So, for example, one family may have access to housing with electricity, sanitation and drinking water, while another may have housing without proper sanitation and yet another may experience housing insecurity. The dilemma then will be to determine how to address these varied levels of poverty in an equitable way. 

In the 1990s, in Latin America, for example, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCTs) programs were thought of as a mechanism to address the issue of poverty, but fundamentally to enable the poor to eventually be in a situation to access better education and break the reproductive cycle of poverty. CCTs are designed to transfer specific amounts of cash to those most in need on the basis that certain conditions are fulfilled - school attendance, routine health checks, etc. However, critics have indicated that such programs should not be considered as silver bullets since other mechanisms must be in place to ensure the long terms goals and effectiveness of how those who are poor are enabled to take advantage of social and economic opportunities (Bonal, Tarabini & Rambla, 2018). There is also the question of who determines the right amount to transfer, or the indicators used to evaluate/define poverty. Furthermore, it is argued that not enough is known about CCTs' impact on longer term outcomes such as health status, test scores and wages (Levy & Ohls, 2010). Therein, we cannot escape the claws of neo-liberalism and the inherent values attached to various programs such as CCTs since such programs originate from a human capital development lens and must therefore consider a multi-tiered approach to poverty reduction.

Eradicating poverty in all its forms is considered to be instrumental in accomplishing sustainable development goals and increasingly, countries as well as IGOs have placed this goal on their agendas. Critically, though, tackling changes in poverty are not only linked to education but, "it requires apt policy analysis. It requires steady and consistent attention by those working in governments, civil society organizations, international agencies, and social movements. And it requires innovative leadership by persons in the private sector, by philanthropists and most of all by poor people and their communities" (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 2018, p. 83). 

References

Bonal, X., Tarabini, A., & Rambla, X. (2018). Conditional Cash Transfers in education for development: Emergency, policy dilemmas and diversity of impacts. In A. Verger, M. Novelli & H. Altinyelken (Eds.). Global education policy and international development: New agendas, issues, and policies, pp. 142-159. 

Bordieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press

Fischer, C. (1982). To dwell among friends: Personal networks in town and city. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Levy, D., & Ohls, J. (2010). Evaluation of Jamaica's PATH conditional cash transfer programme. Journal of  Development Effectiveness, 2(4), 421-441.

Lin, N. (2000). Inequality in social capital. Contemporary Sociology, 29(6), 785-795.

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (2018). Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2018: The most detailed picture to date of the world’s poorest people. University of Oxford, UK.

Tilak, J. B. (2002). Education and poverty. Journal of Human Development, 3(2), 191-207.

Van der Berg, S., Burger, C., Burger, R., De Vos, M., Du Rand, G., Gustafsson, M., Moses, E., ... & Fintel, V. (2011). Low quality education as a poverty trap. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers, No. 25/11.