Education in Third World Countries

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that achieving universal education is one of the UN's 8 Millennium Development Goals agreed to in 2000 by all the world's countries and the world's leading development institutions. The writer points out that although some progress has been made in increasing the level of education in most countries, a number of third world countries have fallen behind in their effort and are unlikely to achieve the goal by the target date of 2015. The writer outlines the benefits of education and discusses the co-relation between illiteracy and poverty. The writer then reviews the status of education in the third world countries. Finally, the writer enumerates the reasons for high levels of illiteracy in these countries and looks at how they can be overcome.

Outline:
Benefits of Education
Responsibility of Governments in Education and its Social Benefits
Individual/ Private Benefits
Co-relation between Poverty and Literacy
The State of Education in Third World Countries
Reasons for the Continuing Low Education Levels
Overcoming the Barriers
References

From the Paper:

"There is a strong correlation between poverty and illiteracy. Wherever literacy rates are lower, poverty rates are invariably higher and vice-versa. The relationship between the two is a vicious circle as poor countries do not have sufficient resources to invest in education; most of the people who survive on incomes of less than 2 dollars a day cannot afford to send their children to school. On the other hand, a low literacy rate is a major barrier against personal improvement and prevents the poorest people to lift themselves out of the poverty trap.
"For example, in third world countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique and Nepal, 78% or more of the population lives on incomes below US$2 per day, adult literacy rates are below 63%, and the number of adult illiterates exceeds 5 million in each country."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Education and Development." (2007). World Bank Website. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://go.worldbank.org/F5K8Y429G0
• "Education for all: Literacy for Life." (2006). UNESCO Global Monitoring Report, 2006. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/summary_eng.pdf
• "Frequently Asked Questions: Education." (2006). World Bank Website. April, 2006. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://go.worldbank.org/B2LD7NHT70
• Hough, J.R. "Educational Cost Benefit Analysis." (1993). Department for International Development, London. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1a/97/73.pdf
• Riddell, W.C. (2004). "The Social Benefits of Education: New Evidence on an Old Question." University of Toronto. December 3-4, 2004. Retrieved on December 7, 2007 from http://www.utoronto.ca/president/04conference/downloads/Riddell.pdf

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