Is Poverty a Determinant of Educational Attainment? Perspective from Africa

• Activity Number: 244
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 1, 2011 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Oyelola Abdulwasiu Adegboye*+ and Danielle Kotze
• Companies: American University of Afghanistan and University of the Western Cape
• Keywords: Education ; Millennium Development Goals ; income ; inequalities ; population health ; poverty

Abstract

Access to education particularly in the developing countries has been discouraging. The Jomtien 1990 declaration of the World Conference on Education for all stipulates that every person (child, youth and adult) shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic needs. It stipulated that by 2015, the time set for Millennium Development Goals, all children must have access to and should be able to complete primary school. Many have described income and education as the fundamental determinant of health and as indicators for socio-economic status. Schooling improves empowerment, productivity, health, and reduces negative features of life such as child labor. Many research has been carried out on the association between income inequalities and population health and much of this work reported that rich and educated people live longer and suffers less mortali