If Education Is the Cure for Poverty, Then How Do We Make the Antidote?

Brad L. Brasseur explores the current problems in creating good education for the poor in developing nations and looks at some of the solutions.

Young Roma children count with their fingers during a preschool class in the abjectly poor Roma settlement of Ponorata, Romania, on Sept. 10, 2013. A Romanian NGO called OvidiuRo, co-founded by Leslie Hawke, who is the mother of American actor Ethan Hawke, is attempting to get young Roma children to regularly attend pre-school through a coupon incentive system for food at Ponorata and 23 other Roma communities across Romania. Between 400 and 500 Roma live in squalor at Ponorata, few have access to electricity and 95% of them are illiterate and unemployed. Many Roma from Ponorata have spent time in France to earn money, mostly through begging and scrap metal collection. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The United Nations recently claimed that the Millennium Development Goal that focused on primary education increased global enrollment from 83 percent to 91 percent. Despite these gains, today it is estimated that 124 million children do not attend school and 757 million adults are illiterate.

The nearly one billion people without a proper education is distressing as a good education is a proven foundation for alleviating poverty, sustainable economic progress, healthier lifestyle, and enhanced social development. Inexplicably, the international community continues to fail the global poor by not creating access to legitimate education programs that allow them to conquer poverty.

The international community continues to fail the global poor by not creating access to legitimate education programs that allow them to conquer poverty.