It cannot be denied that poverty affects education. It is difficult to argue that there are children who are coming from homes where they want and need food and other resources are not able to enter school or if they do, they are underfunded and under resourced.
Last year, United Nations already began its push to improve the access of the world's poorest countries to higher education where it focused on making sure that children all over the world will get an opportunity to attain a decent education at a primary or secondary school while those who were 18 and above can get technical or vocational training.
While the UN's goal include eliminating gender inequality in education, educationalists from the University of Cambridge Sonia Ilie and Pauline Rose warned that inequalities concerning poverty are more concerning than those regarding gender.
Dr. Ilie told Times Higher Education that while the focus is kept on gender inequality, the gaps in education because of inequalities in income should not be overlooked. These educational inequalities according to Dr. Ilie are important considerations in determining whether children went to school or not.
She explained that it is because if a child does not start learning very early, chances are they will miss the huge opportunity of reaching higher education. According to the information she has shown from Young Lives, only 5 percent of those who are not enrolled to school by the age of eight are able to make it into higher education.
In a report by Huffington Post, it is said that since poverty is not fair, nor equitable, and not productive for society, then it must be addressed. Poverty must be addressed and ensure that income inequalities will always be part of policy discussions because it is a national issue and will definitely affect the national progress.
