Education

The Challenge

Lack of access to quality education is preventing millions of people from escaping the cycle of extreme poverty around the world. Most of the 75 million children still out of school are amongst the poorest and hardest to reach. More than half of them are girls, and most are living in countries in conflict and in rural areas. Many of the children who do enroll in school are not graduating with even the most basic reading and math skills, often because their schools do not have enough teachers, books or facilities to provide a quality education. While many countries have opened school doors for millions in recent years by eliminating school fees, other costs such as uniforms and testing still prevent children from enrolling, and many poor families need their children (especially daughters) at home to help with chores including farming or collecting water.

The Opportunity

Education not only provides children and families with a pathway out of poverty, but it can also yield even bigger returns for the world's poorest countries through its impact on areas such as health and the economy. Educated mothers, for example, are more likely to have smaller families, and have their children immunized and send them to school. Education can also provide families and countries with more economic opportunities and help promote the civic participation that is critical to building democracies.

Many governments have taken the first step towards harnessing the potential of education by investing more resources into the sector. Sub-Saharan African countries, for example, sent 34 million children to school for the first time between 1999 and 2006 after many governments used some of the billions of dollars freed up by debt cancellation to help eliminate school fees.

Learn more, read the full Education Issue Brief...