Breaking the Poverty Cycle Through Education

Can access to education help break the poverty cycle?  Yes.  At least, that's what Gail Nystrom in Costa Rica has shown. It's also what members of the United Nations Millennium Summit believe. This is why one of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure that by 2015, boys and girls worldwide have access to primary education.

An obvious result of access to education is increased access to higher paying jobs. However, money is not the only way that education helps to break the poverty cycle. Access to education in impoverished areas has been proven to decrease infant mortality rates, reduce family sizes thereby reducing population growth, and increase health and nutritional awareness. All these elements are interrelated and all result from access to schooling.

For the last thirteen years, the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation, founded by Ms. Nystrom, has had visible success in La Carpio, a poor, refugee neighborhood in San José. After building schools and clinics and managing a steady stream of volunteers, employment is on the rise for residents of La Carpio.  So is quality of life and hope for the next generation. This is an example of how grassroots efforts can make a huge difference on the local level.

Creating access to education on the ground level is critical, but grassroots efforts tend not to have widespread effects. However, governments and large organizations are able to reach entire nations with their programs and efforts. An example of this can be seen in Tanzania, where in 2005, the government declared that primary education throughout the country would be free to all citizens. Since then, enrollment in schools has increased dramatically and children who previously were condemned to lives of poverty now have the chance to break free.

Government programs are not without problems, however. Governments and organizations like the UN and the World Bank have the power and the funding to create extensive programs, but frequently they do not have the follow-up ability to see these programs through. Proper management and growth needs to come from the local level. Dedicated people like Ms. Nystrom are able to work with children and families on an individual level to ensure that education in poverty stricken areas is not only available, but is high quality.

Education, both access to and quality of, is a key element in breaking the cycle of poverty. However, both grassroots and big organizations must work together to ensure that education is both available to all children and of the highest quality. There is hope for breaking the cycle of poverty. It's called education.

Photo Credit: Sumanth Garakarajula