Education and poverty, relationship and concerns. a case for Kenya
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Date
2011-12-01
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Abstract
Poverty has many dimensions and does not merely entail low levels of income or expenditure. According
to Sen (1992), poverty is the lack of capability to function effectively in society. Inadequate education can
thus be considered a form of poverty. Education is widely accepted as the main exit route from poverty.
It is the backbone of growth and development of individuals and the nation. However, its achievement
continues to elude many who are poverty stricken. This paper articulates the issues of education and poverty
which is related to that of chicken-egg relationships. The study used secondary data from eight provinces
in Kenya. The study correlated the poverty headcount with the educational indicators. It emerged from
the data that provinces which had less poverty levels (Central-30.4% and Nairobi 29.5%) experienced
high literacy rate, high enrolment and low dropout rate, while regions which had higher levels of poverty
headcount (North Eastern-73.9% and Coast-69.7%) experienced low literacy rates, and poor academic
performance. The study Concluded that extreme poor are denied access to education, poverty hampers
learning in developing countries through poor nutrition, health, home circumstances, quality, costs and
inadequate resources for education. The study recommends the government to introduce/re-introduce/
strengthen school feeding programme, subsidize school uniform and address the issues of opportunity
cost for the extreme poor among others
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Keywords
Education, Economic growth, Poverty, Relationship