Poverty

One question which is often raised about poverty is -’why those who are poor continue to stay poor?’ Now, the direct answer to this question may be through the concept which is known as the vicious circle of poverty. Once caught up here, the way out seems rather impossible. ,The thing about being poor or rather not being able to afford the basic of the amenities is, inability to find ways to get out of your present situation. Now, education happens to be one of the ways-potentially feasible for moving out of poverty.

Let us consider an example. We have a family of 5 staying in a rural area. There are parents and their 3 kids. Now, the parents are daily wage laborers in the farm of a landlord in that rural area. Despite of both of theirs toiling in the farm, due to the meagre daily wages, they can barely afford meals twice a day. This leaves negligible amount for saving and the chances of spending any money on education of those 3 kids is next to impossible. A school might be present in this particular village under consideration. Now, here, even if those parents somehow manage their expenses for making education available for those children, who is going to ensure quality education in such an extreme location.

Further, if this family decides to migrate to an urban area for a better life style, let us consider the challenges they face in these urban areas. First of all, the cost of living in the urban areas is quite a lot more as compared to the rural areas. Thus, most of such families end up living in slums. Moreover, finding a viable source of income becomes a huge task, since, that family is new to this area and considering the huge amount of immigration in these cities, the competition for even the simplest of the job is tremendous. Moreover, when considering the schools in the urban areas, their fees are far too high for these families to afford. Now, that being said, we also have schools which have charge much lower fees even in these urban areas. But, now, comes into picture, the quality of education again.

You would be wondering as to why I am constantly referring to the quality of education despite of the fact that, at least some of these children are still able to afford that basic education. See, this is not the only fact which exists, but, let us all accept that in today’s world, the quantity of education (in simpler words) or rather the number of degrees you have does not matter. What matters is the institutes from where you have received those degrees and how much practical knowledge, how much applicable knowledge you actually have. On one hand, where the middle class, the affluent are able to afford that quality of education to their children, the poor simply lack the ability to do this. Moreover, with the income inequality and the economic inequality between the rich and the poor globally, widening, this inability of the poor to afford quality education for their kids has become even more conspicuous.

Education can definitely lead the way out of poverty for many families. Even if one individual in the family gets equipped with proper quality education, that person has the ability to lead the entire family out of poverty. That is because of the skills he/she inculcates while being educated. Moreover, quality education opens doors full of opportunities for you to write your future.

Thus, quality education and not just education is an absolute requirement for the way out of poverty.