Social protection and education
Social protection refers to policies and programmes that aim to help address risk vulnerability and chronic poverty. There are a wide range of instruments used for social protection including income support, child grants, disability benefits, and pensions, as well as education focused tools such as scholarship, vouchers or school-based feeding programme. The links between social protection and education run in both directions: Education is one route through which poverty could be prevented from passing on from one generation to the next. And social protection aims to address the problems of poverty and inequality that act as barriers to universal education in many countries.
This page explores some of the evidence that has been gathered on social protection and education and considers what lessons have been learned. The first part asks how social protection can improve education outcomes for poor people, drawing on both country case studies and economic models. Social protection can be targeted at particular groups or conditional, for instance, on children attending school. The second part of this page examines which of these different approaches work best in different circumstances. A final set of papers looks at how countries can weigh up the competing demands of social protection programmes and the school system in order to balance investment in supply of education services with processes to support demand and access.
This page explores some of the evidence that has been gathered on social protection and education and considers what lessons have been learned. The first part asks how social protection can improve education outcomes for poor people, drawing on both country case studies and economic models. Social protection can be targeted at particular groups or conditional, for instance, on children attending school. The second part of this page examines which of these different approaches work best in different circumstances. A final set of papers looks at how countries can weigh up the competing demands of social protection programmes and the school system in order to balance investment in supply of education services with processes to support demand and access.
- Using social transfers to scale up equitable access to education and health services
- This paper focuses on the impact of one form of demand-side policy option - social transfers, particularly cash transfers and vouchers - on access to health and education services by the extreme poor. It also touches upon the broader contribution that social transfers make to human development outcomes.
How social protection can help education outcomes for poor people
Social protection instruments can help to improve education outcomes for poor people by addressing the underlying poverty and inequality that prevents poor children accessing education (if for example they have to work to survive) or fully benefiting from the education they do receive (because they are hungry or malnourished). It can also strengthen demand for education by reducing direct or indirect costs of accessing services.A number of programmes have been implemented around the world which aim to use social transfers to improve the education of poor people, such as the PROGRESA programme in Mexico. Many appear to have had positive effects on school enrolments and other educational outcomes. These papers examine the evidence. Recommended reading...
