Poverty is the world’s greatest threat to peace and stability today, ahead of terrorism and other much-discussed struggles. According to Sachs (2009), more than eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to survive.
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Introduction
Poverty is the world’s greatest threat to peace and stability today, ahead of terrorism and other much-discussed struggles. According to Sachs (2009), more than eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to survive. The Millennium Development Agenda, which will reduce poverty by half by 2015, expresses the global commitment to guarantee the standard of living of humanity. Education is in all respects one of the fundamental factors to achieve sustainable economic development through investment in human capital. Education promotes self-understanding, improves quality of life, and increases people’s productivity and creativity, thus promoting entrepreneurship and technological progress. Furthermore, it plays a very important role in ensuring economic and social progress, improving income distribution, thus saving people from poverty. This article aims to contextualize the role of education in alleviating poverty.
Importance of Education
Education and poverty are inversely related. The higher the level of education of the population, the smaller the number of poor people, because education imparts knowledge and skills that contribute to higher wages. The direct effect of education in reducing poverty is through an increase in income / income or wages. The indirect effect of education on poverty is important in relation to “human poverty”, because as education improves income, basic needs become easier to satisfy and living standards rise, which without it certainly means a decrease in human poverty. In the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), human capital is seen as a weapon against poverty reduction. That is why the idea that education is a determinant of poverty has received a lot of attention in recent years.
People’s education and health are the necessary and important components of human capital that make them productive and raise their standard of living. Human capital is necessary for the effective use of physical and natural capital, technology, and skills.
Education Can Help Eradicate Poverty
Poverty is an obstacle on the road to economic development. The achievement of education, one of the main goals of development economics, is also a driving force behind such development. The backbone of many aid and development programs depends on investment in education (Todaro, 2011). The concept of equal opportunities drives much of this investment. Education gives the individual the knowledge necessary to overcome such inequalities. Obtaining an education increases an individual’s productivity and contribution to the workforce. Investments in education increase the skills and productivity of poor households. Both the income level and the general standard of living (human development) increase. Second, poverty is also a major barrier to educational achievement. Poverty affects educational performance in three dimensions. Furthermore, some unhelpful social norms and so-called religious doctrines ardently restrict girls’ education. Therefore, lack of education is a cause of a person’s low earning capacity and poverty persists even in the next generations of that household. Even the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) recommended by the World Bank focus primarily on girls’ and primary education.
Another notable aspect of the important role of education in reducing poverty is the direct linear relationship between education and income. In Pakistan, an individual worker’s monthly income has been found to increase by 7.3 percent with an additional year of schooling. Earnings will increase by 37 percent upon completing ten years of schooling rather than no education.
Human poverty and income poverty seem to go hand in hand. For example, some smallholder households are able to maintain a reasonable income until they become ill and vulnerable due to lack of effective access to health services, long distances, poor roads, or lack of local services. For others, dealing with the expected loss of farm income due to drought or flooding and seeking alternative crops to plant or additional livelihoods is their top priority.
Education and economic development Education provides a foundation for eradicating poverty and promoting economic development. It is the foundation on which a large part of the economic and social well-being of citizens is built. Education is key to increasing economic efficiency and social coherence, increasing the value and efficiency of the workforce and consequently lifting the poor out of poverty.
Education and family: The family is the basis of a good society and economic success. Families have changed over time, but they are still very important in the modern economy. To understand human capital, we must return to the family, because they are families that care about their children and try, by whatever means they have, to promote their children’s education and values. Families are the main promoters of values in any free society and even in not so free societies.
Conclusion
Education is essential for economic development and poverty reduction. Without education, economic development is not possible. A balanced education system not only promotes economic development, but also productivity, generating individual per capita income. Its influence is remarkable at the micro level of an individual family whose combination forms the nation. That is why we must all invest in education, because it can help eradicate poverty.