Education and poverty are inextricably linked. Families living in vulnerable communities often need their children to stop attending school and begin work to supplement the household income. As a result, children don’t learn important literacy and numeracy skills and are limited to unskilled, low paying jobs. With limited opportunities to earn better incomes, the cycle of poverty continues.
Education is a powerful tool. Equipping children with knowledge and skills gives them greater access to opportunity, and the chance to end the cycle of disadvantage. Here are just a few of the ways education helps reduce poverty in vulnerable communities.
- Improving gender equality: Not only is it impossible to achieve gender equality without education, but expanding education opportunities for all can help stimulate productivity and thereby also reduce the economic vulnerability of poor households.
- Increased individual income: The Global Partnership for Education says that an educated individual’s income increases by 10% for each year of schooling. For every dollar invested in an additional year of education, a person’s earnings increase by at least $2.50 in low to middle-income countries, and up to $5 in lower-income countries.
- Literacy improves health: Education has been linked to improving standards of health around the world. Increased literacy skills enable women to read and access important and useful information during and after pregnancy which can reduce the rates of prenatal and maternal mortality, and improves children’s health.
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