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Kristen Towe

Mrs.Gray

World Literature

12 January 2018

Lack of Education

There are many reasons the world has problems, some of them affect the earth and the

people on it more than others, lack of education is an unseen world problem that is the

foundation of many other complications. People see the effects but know little about the causes

which are the issues for the failure. Almost the entire world faces a gender gap, some more than

others, and a big reason for it is how countries distribute education among sexes. Along with that

comes economy which is run by working people, but there is only so many jobs that don't ask for

an education, so when all of thoses run out the country gets stuck. All these people without jobs

and a huge gender gap have factors that lead to teenage pregnancy making a cycle of them and

their children not going to school. Later on in life when people can't work, have kids to take care

of, and countries are going down because of the rough economy, it can only lead to poverty and

the atrocious elements with it. All these problems correlate with each other and can all get better

with the simple yet complicated process of education.

We wouldn’t even have an economy without some form of education. The economy

drops very rapidly if it is deprived of vital education, and even given no resources for it. The

amount of jobs where you don’t need to have an education is very small based off the jobs that

would help you and the economy. Kenya’s correlation between education and economy are

unmistakably similar. Crises that affect more than just a country can happen like it did in 2010
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where there had been a global economic disaster, the root cause being lack of education, “Kenya,

which is rated in the 50 worst countries for education, delayed plans to provide a free primary

school education to 8.3 million children in September” (Shepard). Depriving the flame of

learning will cause a domino effect of this continuous calamity. How do we expect people to get

jobs in second and third world countries that will improve the economy when their access to

education is limited. It relates to the saying ¨Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day.

Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.¨ The world's richest banking systems

dissolve poor countries budgets, causing the economic downturn. An author from Action Aid

warned, “Some £2.9bn is expected to be lost to education budgets in sub-Saharan Africa because

of the economic crisis” (Archer) Since poor countries put dependence on rich countries, when

one goes down, the other does too. Poverty dense countries are more prone to losing education

due to their lack of independence with it. Having an education system promotes a good economy,

without one you can't trade resources, have better taxes, jobs, welfare, and so on. A lack of

education means a bad economy, making the whole country and others around it suffer.

When a woman gets pregnant they often automatically are more likely to get little to no

education in their lifetime, or in lower ranked areas girls commonly have to marry for the men’s

money in order for her family to survive, later on becoming a mother at a young age. When

someone does not have access education especially girls, they become vulnerable and need to

find any sort of stability such as marrying to support her entire family, or struggling the rest of

her life just to support her baby. This ultimately leads to the continue or a chain reaction of

women in their family having no education. Socialists have said “Children of mothers with little

education are less likely to be educated. The manifestation of women's exclusion can be the
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speeding up of the transition to adulthood through early (teenage) pregnancy effectively closing

off the opportunity to improve employability through further education and work

experience”(Sheperd). More and more children get no education, which affects girls

tremendously and takes all the potential away from them for the fact that they have to go into

motherhood. It can be very frustrating when you are fully capable do a job well, but because

those girls dont have the luxury of being well educated it can lead to self doubt and an unknown

direction of what to do. When these girls dont have enough self confidence in what they do or

where they stand it can lead to small actions that could have a dramatic impact. Also it can be

worse in rural areas where there is little to no sex education which dramatically affects teen

pregnancy. Countries who talk about sex in school at a young age have hardly any teen

pregnancies while other countries are accomplishing the opposite. Rural parts of the world such

as the ones in Ibarapa are more vulnerable to teen pregnancy considering they don't even go to

school to get the littlest bit of sexual education, “76.1% of the respondents had primary

education, 18.1% had secondary education, and 2.9% had a vocational education while the

remaining 2.9% had no formal education.”...”Teen pregnancy, abortion and birth rates (per 1000

girls aged 14–19) [rank] by level of abstinence education” It is hard to know something you are

not taught, yet these kids have to face that. These girls are put in a place to make tough decisions,

and often it is sometimes the best thing they can do considering there is no way to have

education.

In countries such as The US and Europe, the higher the education the higher the

employment for women seems to be. Although other countries do not put education for women

as a big priority making women unfit to work and crushing their economy. Most of them are just
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married off at a young age because that is all they are seen good for. Women only being good for

marriage is hardly the case, giving no education to girls later on, mainly men feeds into the

gender gap which has a simple solution of providing education. All these poor girls know to life

is how to “play” house making them seem less valuable than they actually are. A study that

reports “70 Million Children get no education” provides a eye opening statistic, “Girls are far

less likely to attend school than boys in many of the world's poorest countries, the authors have

found. In Malawi, of those that enrol, 22.3% of boys complete primary compared to 13.8% of

girls. In rural Burkina Faso, 61% of girls are married by the age of 18 and over 85% never get to

see the inside of a secondary school.” This can create a never ending cycle where girls continue

to be the ones caring for the little ones, rather the little ones got to school including the girls and

everyone goes to work, including the girls. When it comes to hard things women have to face in

their everyday lives, it tends to make most men brush away how strong women actually are, yet

when it comes to work they simply think women are to weak from their lack of education. You

can’t expect these girls to read and write of they have never had a chance to be taught. In some

countries it shows what a girl can do once she has the resources to do it. Data from the

Luxembourg Income Study found a good example of how education correlates to a young

women's career, ”among married or cohabiting mothers, better educated women are more likely

to be employed; gender inequality in annual earnings is thus less extreme among the well

educated than among those with less education, driven largely by educated women's higher

employment” This shows that women don't take their education for granted and most make as

much use out of it as they can. Women can work for the same rates as men and feel more equal,

we just have to start with the foundation which is knowledge. Ultimately, giving women the
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same resources as men minimizes the gender gap that is caused by insignificant education for

women.

Why fix a problem that people can live with? The school system is a bigger problem than

lack of education, many kids are already in school and there is a lot of time and resources that

wont be used. One solution to fit all the issues starting in the US and beyond is not practical.

Corporate investors throw money at reforms, nevertheless they still get nowhere. Through all the

attempting to invest it still hasn't stopped the regard that “providing more charter schools or that

failing districts can fire their [corporate investors] way to success using tests as a standard for

teacher performance”(Riddell). The corporate investors along with many other things is what is

wrong with education, not the reason that everyone can't get to it. The more wealthy kids make

the scores for private and charter schools higher. Generally those families have more resources

and time, automatically making them better students. Why would teachers waste their hours in a

day and struggle teaching kids who don't have the time and can't learn, while they could teach

the opposite. In particular, “Speaking of affluence, in The Public School Advantage, University

of Illinois Professors Christopher and Sarah Lubienski find that private and charter schools tend

to report higher scores because their students mostly come from families that are better off

financially” (Riddell). This shows the parents have more ways and means to invest in their

children. Accordingly, children who are easier to educate have advantages at home and can make

life easier for the teachers and investors.

Just because a child is born into poverty does not mean they are not capable of having a

successful career, only that goal would be harder to reach than others. The entire point of the

education system is to give kids a place reserved for learning. People do not choose what they
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are born into therefore we have to adapt to the environment and what we are exposed to and the

situation regarding it. The kids facing a low income school along with a low income area can be

very physiologically degrading the older they get, causing an uninterested motive. There appears

to be a cycle where the kids are so caught up in poverty that they unintentionally delude into it

due to the lack of stability. This can make people look down onto the children in financial need

causing less money to be spent on schools with more poverty dense areas. Poor schools or Poor

children? states, “Poverty does not cause academic failure, but it is a factor that profoundly

influences the character of schools and student performance, in at least three broad and

interrelated ways: 1) in most cases, considerably less money is spent on the education of poor

children.” Being poor doesn't dictate your path to your future but it creates a lot of bumps and

detours. Let's say a rich kid is having a hard time in school, they can have people such as tutors

and therapists. More than likely if someone is rich, more money is poured into their school

causing them to already have an advantage considering the better staff. With that, these things

follow with a broad amount of conditions that affect schools character, “2) the unmet, non

academic needs of children (social, emotional, and psychological) often have an impact on

learning; 3) schools serving large numbers of poor children typically lack the resources and

expertise to respond to their academic and social needs.” (Poor schools or Poor children?, 2010)

Without enough resources a majority of kids would rather just give up on trying to get a good

education, because at some point it’s just too much to handle. All in all education has a big

impact on poverty no matter what situations, an absence of a good education can push children to

diblitate below par.

Lack of education causes many problems that we can fix from the root. Kids can’t go to

school in certain countries either because it is not socially acceptable depending your gender, or

your responsibilities at home. In first world countries they have options on schools and even

though it might be harder depending on their situation, they can rise above their circumstances

and get many options for their career and where life can take them. When you have no education

to start you off it becomes hard to find diverse jobs that will make the economy better. Where as

teenage pregnancy can be something people can handle, but it makes a drastic change in those

people's lives that didn't have to happen if it weren’t for the right education. All of these

problems and more correspond in a way where they can be the producers of each other and yet

have the same solution. Making it that if one is helped than the other problems become better

too. The more privileged community who have had life handed to them can make a change, let

the rich help the poor. In order to do that our society needs to change from giving to yourself to

giving to others who need it. Even if people help people in other countries a little bit it can make

a significant modification in citizens lives. Nothing in this world will ever be entirely fixed, but

they can always get better. On a final note, having education is vital to human stability and the

lack of it is the infrastructure to many world problems.

Works Cited
England, Paula, et al. “Women's Employment, Education, and the Gender Gap in 17 Countries.” Monthly
Labor Review, vol. 135, no. 4, 2012, pp. 3+. Questia School,
www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-292374359/women-s-employment-education-and-the-gend
er-gap. Accessed 2017.
The article uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to show how better educated women
are more likely to be employed and how the unequal pay between sexes is less extreme. It also
uses data from many high and middle income countries focusing on how different variables of
employment was caused by education level. They show evaluate the gender gap in seventeen
countries, later on showing us the differences between the U.S. and Europe countries. The
article soon breaks down theories how women's level of education and husband effects
women's earnings.
The author is mainly just recording the research along with some logic reasoning. She also
includes sociologists thoughts behind the reason women would rather have a meaningful job so
if they can’t get one staying home with the kids is a meaningful practice for women. While doing
this, the author organizes these thoughts somehow creates delicate subjects not so delicate. The
outcome leaves merely the data leaving the reader with all the research that will develop their
opinion based off the study.

Odebode, Stella O., and Oluyinka A. Kolapo. “Vulnerability of Teenage Girls to Pregnancy in Ibarapa
Central Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria.” Journal of International Women's Studies,
vol. 17, no. 4, 2016, pp. 122+. Questia School,
www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-472266201/vulnerability-of-teenage-girls-to-pregnancy-in-ib
arapa. Accessed 2017.
This article give many details and examples how adultolescents such as girls are more prone to
sexual risks and teenage pregnancy. It provides a study from a random households in Harare, the
capital of Zimbabwe. The study looks into the connection between STD’s with education and
amount of parents.
The author states firm detailed evidence that proves each argument overall wrapping up to the
summary of the overall topic. Some may say the author used a domino effect starting with small
points that seems irrelevant at the time but in fact had key role in proving her topic. The author
organizes the journal by goals in order to give solutions the main issue. This creates a very
productive way of making it simplistic in order for the reader to potentially do things to make a
positive impact on the goals. This source contrived concepts to help the issue while keeping
stability of the reasons with facts.
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“Poor Schools or Poor Kids? to Some, Fixing Education Means Taking on Poverty and Health Care.”
Education Next, vol. 10, no. 1, 2010, pp. 44+. Questia School,
www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-225074818/poor-schools-or-poor-kids-to-some-fixing-educat
ion. Accessed 2017.
The article claims poverty is a big factor that influences character of schools and their
performance. They explain how even when children are in poverty it doesn't mean they can’t
learn, only that the resources the children need are hard to get. Also how we can not get every
child to learn until we take care of poverty and social issues like it.
At first the author puts their opinion forward rationalizing it to break down his thoughts. He also
uses other people’s notions that are qualified to say so, such as Joe Williams who is from The
Education Equality Project. By showing someone's opinion that has experience and is obviously
liable on the first look as your main source for the opinionated article is a good way to go.

Shepherd, Jessica. “70 Million Children Get No Education, Says Report.” The Guardian, Guardian News
and Media, 20 Sept. 2010,
www.theguardian.com/education/2010/sep/20/70m-get-no-education.

This well thought out article gives a study how people living in north Africa are least likely to go
to school according to world rankings. Throughout the study there is numerous statistics and
facts on each set of research. Also how the rank of other countries are incredibly based on their
education system. They prove in the report how poor countries are struggling and will continue
to do so.
Jessica the author includes mainly evidence in her writing with little commentary, the article is
mainly a place for statistics. She starts with the big picture and then throws a lot of facts at the
reader not organizing it in any specific way. With that it is not hard for the reader to piece
together the different parts of the study but the author does not place any of her own reason
behind the facts which would go mainally in a bad direction anyhow. The author doesn't quite
explain the causes of these things very deeply but has very good evidence to the analysis in a
whole.