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1 Introduction
Just under a decade ago the United Nations Millennium Development Goals identified poverty reduction and essential aspects of human development to be at the core of economic development. The number one international development goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and the second is to achieve universal primary education. Extreme poverty is defined as the proportion of the population living on less than a dollar a day. The focus on income provides a clear way of assessing the extent of impoverishment for the sake of marking achievements and failures since data on non-income disparities can provide ambiguous results. However, there is consensus among the international community that poverty, particularly long-term poverty, is a much more complex phenomenon. Universal primary education has been shown to be a crucial element in breaking the cross-generational cycle of poverty and a fundamental building block for sustainable development.
While, as noted, poverty is often treated as a national phenomenon and studied from a national economic perspective, this research will examine the phenomenon from the family and child perspective. By focusing on the problem of poverty and the ways in which it affects and is affected by education, this research will try to capture the causes and consequences of poverty. Within the context of this approach, the research will expose the reasons why poverty can be a generational phenomenon. While a number of factors determine the inheritance of poverty from one generation to the next, education, quite paradoxically, emerges as both the core reason for generational poverty and the solution to it.
2 Poverty and Education: The Link
UNESCO (1998) identifies basic education as a learning process that empowers the poor to overcome the adversities of poverty by building skills, influencing attitudes and attacking ignorance. Poverty is defined here as a situation where a person must struggle to acquire the basic life necessities, which extend beyond economic needs. The study highlights the multiple dimensions of human needs that range from the most essential life sustaining requirements like a secure food and water supply to health, education, and sanitation, as well as social, cultural and spiritual elements that are not so easily distinguished. The poor then cannot be identified by insufficient income alone, but rather by circumstances such as unemployment, illiteracy, malnutrition, poor health, sub-standard housing, chronic unemployment, landlessness, etc. Accordingly, UNICEF (2005) notes that the circumstances of poverty can vary greatly by geographic location as economic development, health and education tend to be concentrated in specific urban sectors. The result is that economic, social, and legislative processes harden social positions and increase disparities among the rural poor, ethnic minorities and women.
World Bank researchers de Ferranti and others (2004) explore the historical roots of poverty. This study points out the long-term historical consequences of colonial imperialism (unequal access to land, education and political rights) as the primary contributing factors to the inequality and poverty experienced today. Here, it is determined that high inequality greatly inhibits economic development from reducing poverty, while education is central to creating economic opportunities, raising one's social status and increasing political influence. The study concludes that it is possible to "break with history" through equal access to basic education in conjunction with other factors such as more inclusive labor institutions and improved social protection.
Another World Bank study by Perry et al (2006) acknowledges and expands on de Ferranti's findings by explaining the rebounding effects of poverty. The study notes that lower educational attainment works to sustain a pattern of negative consequences, or "vicious circles," which tend to increase social inequalities (in health, education, income etc.) and prevent or greatly inhibit economic growth from reducing long-term poverty and leading to sustainable development. Other researchers like Day (2003) and Friedman (2005) agree noting that while economic growth tends to alleviate poverty over the short-term, it also leads to higher fertility among the poor due to insufficient access to education and family planning. More children increase hardships and limit the positive effects of economic growth preventing families from escaping poverty over the long-term.
Beauchemin (2001) supports these findings adding that the fertility and growth cycle can produce sustainable progress when individual fertility choice and community investments in human capital are among influencing factors. Gimenez (2005) examines a compilation of economic literature on human capital from 1960 to the present and attempts to clarify the concept with special reference to how it is accumulated. This study indicates that human capital is the sum of inborn and acquired capabilities that increase employment opportunities and improve one's ability to generate income.
Sen (1999) focuses on the human element of development as well concentrating on political freedom as a means to generate other capabilities. In this context, his research addresses many of the most challenging issues of international development including poverty, education and women's issues. The empowerment of women through education is a central theme in this work due to the positive influence that it has on improving lives by reducing fertility, child mortality, and overall poverty. Poverty is defined here as capability deprivation such as hardships like disease and water scarcity that stifle human development, while human capital is identified as capability enhancement because it improves the quality of life and generates opportunities.
Perry et al (2006) also explain the two-way relationship between human capital and poverty, but indicate that there is a reverse effect as well in which poverty negatively impacts economic growth and limits human capital attainment. Cross-generational low education traps are highlighted as the main sources of high inequality and social exclusion, while at the same time returns on education are noted to be much lower among the poor. Birdsall (1997) comes to similar conclusions while finding that active pursuit of universal education at incremental levels, in conjunction with economic growth and other factors, can alleviate poverty and achieve greater equality. This work indicates that educational performance and the strong demand for educated labor in the manufacturing sector allowed East Asian economies to leap ahead of Latin America."
Other studies have also investigated the slow developmental progress in Latin America by pitting the region against the rapid industrialization in East Asia over the last half century. Berthellemy (2006) points to education policies aimed at improving the quality of the whole population as having played a major role in reducing poverty and allowing East Asian countries to escape their underdevelopment traps. Ashton (1999) confirms these findings noting that it was education growth along with economic growth that generated the virtuous circles that launched the four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) on their successful development paths. It is clear from these studies that basic education plays a crucial role in eliminating poverty and laying a firm foundation for sustainable development.
Poverty, in other words, adversely impacts national economic performance and the solution lies in education. Unfortunately, poverty tends to be a pass from one generation to the next because children from poor families rarely have access to the quality of education necessary for socio-economic mobility. Being poor affects access to education and constrains opportunities for quality education.
[To be continued...]
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