Prepared by the researche : AHMAD GARBA – Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State Nigeria – Department of Arts and Social Science Education
Democratic Arabic Center
Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Twenty-Third Issue – November 2024
A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin
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ABSTRACT
Quality education can be way out of poverty and an important factor in achieving quality in society, but at the same time, poverty can create significant barriers to quality and access to education. Poverty isn’t only related to lack of income or resources, but also includes other manifestations such as hunger, malnutrition, pure access to education and basic services, in addition to social discrimination and lack of opportunities to participate in decision-making. Poverty and education have a reciprocal effect, access to high quality education is the best way out of poverty, and it helps achieve economic growth. Poverty deprives millions of people around the world of the opportunity to live a decent life and play an effective role in serving and advancing their communities. Lack of access to quality education is the main reason for the persistence of poverty in any society and its transmission from one generation to the next. Therefore, education remains one of the best ways to develop societies in a sustainable manner. But how can education as a dream and aspiration contribute to breaking this cycle that poor and developing societies suffer from, on this regards, this paper tends to highlight on the importance of education as an aspiration to poor youths to alleviate the severe effects of poverty among themselves in Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION
Education is the basic element for lifting individuals and societies out of poverty, because the knowledge gained from science gives children the confidence necessary to complete the educational process and thus achieve dreams in a better way and help future generations. It also helps in creating major and different changes in adults, especially in their daily lives, from nutrition, education, and health care, which makes them a good role model for their children and encourages them to learn. (Odinkau, F. 2014: pp 67). Poverty is a phenomenon that has a negative impact on most socially vulnerable groups. The impact of poverty extends to the individual and society, forming a real burden on available resources and opportunities, and is reflected in the overall economic and social life of individuals and societies.
Poverty essentially means the inability of an individual to meet his basic needs of food and clothing with little or no resources, and poverty can extend to destitution when an individual cannot secure his basic daily sustenance. The United Nations has defined the poor in practice as a person living below the extreme poverty line of $1.9 per day, and according to the United Nations, the number of poor people around the world below this line reached about 676.5 million people (about 8.4% of the world’s population) at the end of 2022. Poverty is defined as a state in which people lack material possessions, such as money, and the necessary means to meet their basic needs. It is associated with several characteristics, such as poor health, low levels of skills and education, and inability to work, as well as negative, undisciplined behaviors such as vandalism, extravagance, and others. It also has negative effects on the individual and society alike. (B. Milanovic, 2013: pp 90)
Despite the difference in the concept of poverty from one country to another, there is what is called a quasi-agreement on the broad outlines that explain this dangerous scourge; as it is known as: the material deprivation that results in a decline at all levels, especially the educational level, health level and housing level. The level of education in any country in the world is one of the approved indicators to measure the extent of poverty in it. Increasing youths access to education increases the opportunity for equal opportunities and improves material, cognitive and health living conditions. But the problem lies in the fact that about 244 million children and young people are not enrolled in schools in the world. (UNESCO, 2019).
The African continent, for example, includes more than half of the number of fragile states in the world. There are also more than 50 million children and young individuals aged 6-21 out of school and a third of children aged 12-14 out of school in these countries, which together make up half of the world’s out-of-school children. Children do not go to school for a variety of reasons, all of which are a result of poverty. More than 70% of schools in many of the countries where we work in Africa do not have access to clean water or sanitation. The malnutrition rate is 50% higher than in the rest of the world. The primary school completion rate is 18% lower. Families living in poverty often have to choose between sending their children to school or providing other basic needs so they do not have to pay for school fees, such as uniforms, books and exam fees. Some youths are forced to stay home to do household chores or are pushed into the labor market at an early age. (OCHA. 2017 and UNICEF(Nigeria) 2018 Report)
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN THE SOCIETY
If we look closely at all countries of the world, we will find that the number of poor people has reached nearly a third of the world’s population, which is 6 billion citizens around the world. Because poverty is closely linked to education, we find that half of this percentage of poor people around the world are illiterate and cannot read and write, which shows us the extent of the danger of this scourge known as poverty, and the extent of its impact on education, which in turn affects all other aspects from economic, social, psychological and other aspects. In this regard, researches show that; Poverty has countless negative effects on societies, but the greatest danger of poverty, lies on education.
According to National Population Commission (Nigeria) and RTI International. (2016) Going by this indication, we find that the poor citizen does not look at things with the eyes of a normal person, nor does he see them from their correct perspective. He focuses most of his priorities on meeting his basic needs of food, drink, clothing, and medicine, which does not make him view education as a necessity for life, but rather views it as a secondary matter due to his inability to obtain it. poor parents who are responsible for children and families not keen for their children to enroll in schools for the sake of learning, but rather see that it is better for them to leave their schools in order to help them with living matters.
The writer believe that Poverty also has a great impact on the creativity process in society. The poorer the society, the less creativity and innovations that help in the progress and development of society. This may be due to the lack of capabilities of the poor person in terms of keeping up with modern developments. Even if he resists poverty in terms of joining the educational process, he will find many difficulties in terms of keeping up with modern technology, which in turn requires a lot of money in most cases. Equally, illiteracy which is a result of poverty by nature, results in a great degree of correlation between poverty and disease, which may spread widely in societies suffering from poverty.
Different societies in Nigeria are among the largest societies suffering from this scourge, as most youths in the societies live in a state of poverty, which in turn increases the gap in income and wealth inequality. Though Education is one of the greatest means by which poverty can be confronted; considering that education is the same weapon with which poverty in societies is fought, but unfortunately some developing and under-developed countries don’t spend much on education, which leads to the misplacement of priority during annual budget and funds allocation for nation building. but if education is given a priority in those Nations (Word Bank. 2019, pp 6). we can simply say through education, the poor can coexist with society to a great extent, and it makes them help in the progress of their society, which in turn leads to a decrease in the unemployment rate in this society.
Poverty has serious social effects on society, the most dangerous is the spread of diseases, which is a result of poor nutrition and the inability to provide the appropriate medicine for each disease, which is widespread in developing countries, like Nigeria and other African states. Studies have shown that the percentage of those who suffer from malnutrition in developing countries has reached approximately 70%. There is no doubt that the first step and the primary cause of poverty is malnutrition, indicating that this is also a cause of one of the negative effects of poverty, which is the high death rate in these countries that suffer from poverty. This is nothing but a result of the lack of health services and their lack of development, as well as the lack of basic services such as potable water and suitable housing. These are all effects resulting from poverty that must be fought, and perhaps the only weapon capable of confronting it is education. (Mobolaji, J. W, et. Al, 2020: pp 90).
POVERTY AND EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
As stated earlier, Despite the importance of the role of education in improving the lives of the poor around the world, researchers have confirmed the impact of poverty on learning and education of a child as well as a youth. In Nigeria there are studies that have confirmed the existence of a direct link between low income and chronic health problems, psychological disorders, social and academic functions, and additional research has also provided evidence that poverty reduces a child’s readiness for school through several factors, including; the prevalence and depth of poverty, its duration, its concentration, crime in the student’s community and the impact of poverty on social networks. While according to USAID (2017) Poverty creates major challenges that hinder youths’ lives, especially in the field of education, as governments in Nigeria spends small portions of its GDP on education, making it unavailable to poor families and of lower quality, due to crowded classrooms, broken computers, and unqualified teaching staff. All of these conditions do not meet the needs of students. Although some public schools are usually free, there are some additional costs of providing school uniforms, buying books, and transportation that students need to move around, especially in rural areas, in addition to the money that poor families lose by sending their children to school instead of working to earn a living. There are many statistics that have been conducted to reveal the impact of poverty on education, including the statistics of the Urban Institute, which showed that 40% of children in northern Nigeria suffering from poverty do not complete the secondary stage of their academic life, which reduces the rates of economic success, as well as the rates of job opportunities, which leads to poverty as an adult. These statistics were shocking because they showed the impact of poverty on the student’s ability to succeed through.
Therefore, it is important to create an alternative environment for youths in Nigeria to reduce the effects of poverty on them. This task is based on the government, NGO, philanthropists and parents, as children are able to adapt to the circumstances that are created for them easily, which will play an important role in improving their lives. It is enough to create a kind of hope in their lives to make them attached to the future, and it can also change their minds for the better. (NBS/Nigeria and United Nations Children’s Fund (2018). Strong school admiring, secure relationships in families, helps to stabilize children’s behavior, provide the foundations for building social skills, and teaches them healthy emotional responses that are appropriate for the daily situations they encounter.
ROLE OF SCHOOL IN REDUCING THE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH POVERTY
-Education protects children and youths from the risks that may confront them in areas experiencing natural disasters or conflicts, so that they do not fall victim to various types of exploitation
-Education reduces many problems that prevent people from living a healthy life, including infant and maternal mortality, stunting, infant and maternal mortality, exposure deadly diseases and violence.
-Education helps youths to acquire and develop social, emotional and cognitive skills. because a person who receives a good primary and secondary education have greater opportunities to earn a higher income and improve their lives for the better in various areas.
-Education contributes to reducing the inequality experienced by girls in many areas where poverty and illiteracy are widespread. Where the girl is forced to stay in her family home to take care of her siblings or other household chores and is deprived of her right to education. As the school enables girls to build skills, gain knowledge, social growth and increase their opportunities to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
-Education helps in reducing a decline in the rates of economic and social development, which happen due to the diversion of resources allocated for Education and health sectors to social support and poverty alleviation programs.
-Education and complete literacy straighten a weak financial capacity within poor societies, and reduces the high rate of unemployment among youths from illiterate and low income families which indicates in the following list of unemployment rates across Nigeria in 2023 according to NBS:
- Abia: 18.7%
- FCT: 14.1%
- Rivers: 13.4%
- Gombe: 11.2%
- Imo: 10.9%
- Ogun: 8.8%
- Delta: 8.2%
- Kano: 7.6%
- Plateau: 7.4%
- Borno: 7.3%
- Beyelsa: 6.3%
- Enugu: 5.9%
- Ondo: 5.7%
- Lagos: 5.5%
- Ekiti: 5.5%
- Akwa Ibom: 5.1%
- Kwara: 4.8%
- Anambra: 4.8%
- Edo: 4.4%
- Bauchi: 4.2%
- Jigawa: 4%
- Ebonyi: 3.7%
- Yobe: 3.3%
- Niger: 3.2%
- Adamawa: 3.2%
- Zamfara: 3.1%
- Kogi: 3%
- Osun: 2.9%
- Katsina: 2.8%
- Cross River: 2.8%
- Kaduna: 2.7%
- Oyo: 2%
- Taraba: 1.9%
- Kebbi: 1.6%
- Benue: 1.6%
- Sokoto: 1.2%
- Nasarawa: 0.5%
CONCLUSION
Going by the information above it can be said that poverty has many negative dimensions that in turn reinforce the depth of illiteracy in Nigeria. Poverty is clearly evident among majority of youths in Nigeria, especially in the low-income families and fragile societies such as refugee and displacement societies. Fortunately, apart from government, there are some non-governmental organizations who also working to address this phenomenon in its areas of operation through many programs that aim to protect responsible youths from the clutches of poverty and destitution, with a focus on educating and empowering with different forms of skills. including financial or in-kind assistance, providing educational and health care services, and everything that aims to rehabilitate society. therefore, through the aforementioned data, the researcher concludes that:
-Poverty results in the spread of ignorance as parents lose interest in education at the expense of finding additional sources of income.
-Youths and Children from low income family are the most affected by school dropout syndrome in Nigeria, despite the claim of the free basic Education by the Nigerian government, as they are forced to help their families earn an income through work in professions that are often high-risk.
-Spread of diseases and epidemics as a result of the poor people’s lack of resources and their inability to receive treatment and medical consultations.
-Spread of violence and crime, with some individuals resorting to compensating for their lack of resources through illegal means.
-Poverty is one of the causes of violence in society. The negative impact of poverty extends to include threatening the state of national security in societies. The feeling of deprivation accompanied by ignorance, frustration and the absence of social justice constitutes a suitable focus for generating violence at various family and societal levels.
-Spread of crime cases, Domestic violence against children and women, Increase in theft and looting in society, Political and security unrest.
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https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/3255
Word Bank. 2019. Ending Learning Poverty: What Will It Take? World Bank, Washington, DC. World Bank.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/3255
Word Bank. 2019. Ending Learning Poverty: What Will It Take? World Bank, Washington, DC. World Bank.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/3255
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