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Education and poverty (From Mr NANA, Provincial High School of Kaya)

Access to basic education as a human right has improved, but there is much more to be done. The poor have benefited less than the better off. The push for universal primary education has left out poor children. Rural/urban differentials remain large in many countries.
The content and quality as well as the level of education affect children’s prospects for development. Educated mothers encourage and support the education of their children. They know the value of education, but they are also to afford it. The poor cannot afford to supplement inadequate public systems with private education.
The number of siblings can affect a child’s chance of education : poor families must often choose which of their children to educate. In extended families, relatives sometimes step in to cover some of the costs, but the choice falls more often on the boys, leaving the girls with little or no education. Parents may also have concerns about girls’ safety at school, or going to and from school. Among older girls, pregnancy is always a risk. Even without these pressures, mothers’ need for help with their many tasks often takes priority over girls’ schooling. The gender gap in primary education has narrowed in many countries over the past several decades, but sometimes this is only because boys’ progress has slowed.
Many children do not have the benefit of a two-parent family. The luckier ones are living in one-parent homes or fostered with relatives, but a large and growing number of children are abandoned, orphaned (increasingly) by HIVIAIDS) or sold into sexual servitude. Their lives are likely to be short, painful and unhappy.
Education for the children of the poor, especially those who live outside the reach of families, calls for special efforts. Civil society helps reach out to young people outside the school system, but efforts are piecemeal in most developing countries. It requires a massive investment in both formal and informal education, inside and out of school.

Extracted form State of world population 2002

Vocabulary
Prospect : hope, possibility
Siblings : children who have the same parents
To foster : to take a child who is not one’s own into one’s family
Gender : what concerns the sex (male or female)

QUESTIONS

I/ MCQs : Choose and write the letter which corresponds to the right answer according to the text :

1- As for as the access to basic education is concerned, there is…
a- progress and satisfaction
b- no progress
c- progress but not total satisfaction

2- Basic education profits more to …
a- any child
b- the rich children
c- the poor children

3- Educated mothers encourage children’s education because they…
a- know the importance of it and are capable to support it.
b- Know the value of school
c- love their children

4- Girls are less educated than boys because…
a- boys are more intelligent than girls
b- Girls don’t like going to school.
c- Girls have more risks and are needed for housework too.

5. Civil society helps reach children who are…
a- at school
b- about to go to school
c- not going to school

II/ GUIDED COMMENTARY

1) For what reasons do some parents are obliged to choose which child is to be sent to school ? (2pts)
2) Name two problems faced by children in the text (3pts)
3) What is the real reason why the gap between educating boys and educating girls has narrowed in many countries ? (4pts)
4) Do you think it is normal to send more the boy than the girls to school ? (6pts)