Does education reduce poverty in rural Bangladesh?

Poverty is a cause of a lack of education, as well as an effect. Is education contributing to poverty reduction in rural homes in Bangladesh? What impact does poverty have on enrolment rates in primary and secondary school?

It is beyond doubt that education contributes to social and economic development in society. Moreover, in the search for strategies to reduce poverty, it has been established that education and literacy are crucial for improving the lives of people living in poverty. Education helps to alleviate poverty by affecting labour productivity and via other paths of social benefit. It is therefore a vital development goal. 

The Programme for Research on Chronic Poverty, in Bangladesh, and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, in the UK, examine whether education contributes to poverty reduction in rural homes in Bangladesh. They also look at the potential for poverty reduction through better employment opportunities.

Using data from a school-level survey and a household survey, the study investigates children’s access to primary and secondary school by assessing at the impact of different levels of poverty on enrolment rates. It also considers the link between school quality and poverty.

The study finds that:

• Primary and secondary school enrolment rates are lower among children from poor households, with differences increasing at the level of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) completion.
• As education has an inter-generational impact on schooling, future generations will be affected by the link between poverty and education.
• Poverty has a negative impact on school enrolment: there is a lack of motivation to send children to school, due to high unemployment and few opportunities for salaried employment with less than a SSC-level education. Parents are also unable to pay for education.
• The weaker performance of children living in poverty (with regard to dropping out of school and not completing SSC), has, in part, been due to the poorer quality of their schools.
• Distance to high school has no significant impact on enrolment.
• More girls enrol at secondary level than boys, but their completion levels at SSC level are much lower, due to their lack of employment opportunities.
• Children drop out because they dislike school, are not doing well and lack intelligence for studying. This implies that children are not learning interesting, useful and relevant information.

On the basis of the findings, researchers recommend that policies to counteract the negative impact of poverty must be pursued urgently:

• Poorer children should be targeted by stipend and other education support programmes.
• Support for primary education must be given to the children of the poorest 20 to 25 percent of households.
• The poorest 50 percent of households must be prioritised for support at secondary school level. Both boys and girls deserve this support.

In addition:

• As a priority, jobs must be created for young people with a secondary education.
• In the medium term, infrastructure and industry policies should target rural areas.
• Plans should be adopted for special courses offering training skills to young people who complete any level of secondary school.
• The performance of students living in poverty can be improved without significant changes being made in terms of location of schools and number of teachers.
• Policies to motivate girls to complete SSC should change the secondary-level stipend for girls to partly cover examination fees, and place a condition on schools that a certain proportion of secondary-level girls who receive a stipend must sit and pass the SSC.
• The learning process must change to ensure that children do well in their studies, move up through the classes and find school learning interesting. Well-planned and long-term strategies must be implemented in phases. Policies and programmes in this direction must begin now.

Source(s):
‘Access to Education and Employment: Implications for Poverty’, PRCPB Working Paper No. 14, Programme for Research on Chronic Poverty in Bangladesh (PRCPB)/Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), Manchester, by Rushidan Islam Rahman, 2006 Full document.
Further details about this research project from the 'Chronic Poverty Research Centre' Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

id21 Research Highlight: 27 April 2008

Further Information:
Rushidan Islam Rahman
Research Director
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)
E-17, Agargaon Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Dhaka-1207
Bangladesh

Tel: +880 2 8113613
Fax: +880 2 8113023
Contact the contributor: rushidan@sdnbd.org

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies

Other related links:
'Does investing in education reduce poverty? Evidence from Ghana, Uganda and South Africa'

'Tackling illiteracy in rural areas'

'Libraries in Africa: a key to poverty reduction and literacy'

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