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Tristen Browne
ENC1101/ Massey
December 9th, 2015
Argumentative Essay

The Importance of Education in Third World Countries

Education is the vast knowledge attained after studying a particular subject matter or
experiencing life lessons which provides us with a general understanding of something. Equality
of Education has become a worldwide topic. Many countries across the world particularly India,
some parts of Africa and the Middle East and some if not all Caribbean countries are faced with
the challenges of obtaining an education for all. Education is essential is all aspects of life and a
countries affairs whether social or economic and is the stepping stone to combatting poverty and
alleviating the spread of harmful diseases such as AIDS/HIV. Many countries are unable to tackle
these issues right away because they do not have the necessary resources needed to first educate
teachers, improve classrooms, give each child the necessary school supplies and books, attain
gender equality and to stop violence in these countries that hinders children from getting to their
schools without the fear of being attacked or killed.
Equality of educational opportunities is an ideal. Perhaps nowhere has it been nor will it
be fully realized. But to strive for anything less seems beneath the dignity of humanity. The
government that refuses to claim this ideal as its ultimate goal will be severely criticized. (Ward
20) Having a well-educated majority should be the main goal of any country whether developed
or developing although most developed countries do not have problems with providing education
it is the developing countries that face a greater challenge. Developing countries tend to have less

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financial resources and would have to reach out to governments and worldwide organizations for
aid in certain projects and in many instances this aid is only enough to fuel less than half of the
proposed project leaving the government to look for further aid to achieve their goal. If the
majority of the population of a country is not willing or able to work or is not experienced in
many of the job areas being offered, then the majority of the population becomes unemployed
and governments would have to look outside of the country to find suitable individuals to carry
out the necessary tasks at hand. Sometimes employing expatriate workers can be costlier than
employing someone in your country because there are many expenses which would be need to
covered by the employer. High levels of unemployment in a country basically means high levels
of poverty because without a job a person would not be able to provide for themselves or their
families even the basic necessities of life. Poverty is a major issue in most third world countries
because they have little to no resources to provide for themselves or even if they have the
resources they do not have the proper tools or a proper educated majority to carry out certain
tasks which takes you back to the point on employing persons outside a country. In countries like
Sub-Saharan Africa UNESCO with their Education for All initiative has introduced programs to
help educate the children in that region. The Millennium development goal 2 proposed by
UNESCO is to ensure that children everywhere whether boy or girl will be able to complete a
full course of good quality primary schooling. There efforts have not gone to waste for they have
made some achievements with this goal. The number of children out of school has dropped
sharply, from 96 million in 1999 to around 72 million by 205, with the biggest change in subSaharan Africa and South and West Asia, which continue to harbor the largest percentages of
children not in school. (Matsuura) Over the years more governments have shown concern about
the poor quality of education and an increasing amount of these third world developing countries

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are participating in international and regional assessments and some going even further to
conduct their own. Many countries such as Haiti have high unemployment and poverty levels
because most of the population is uneducated and or are unable to pay for school. When foreign
investors set up businesses in the country they hire most employees from outside the country
because there is no one living within the country that have the experience for the job. Although
most of these foreign investors higher locals to do little jobs like carrying boxes or cleaning they
can also learn new things which also benefits them but not as much as if they were to receive a
basic education.
Education is also necessary when it comes to gender equality. In many countries girls are
not given the opportunity to receive a proper education because they either have children at very
young ages or they are not allowed to go to school. If we continue to leave vast sections of
people of the world outside the orbit of education, we make the world not only less just, but also
less secure. (Karam 31) The World Bank has stressed in recent years that educating girls yields
a higher rate of return than any other investment. Surveys in 55 developing countries reveal that
girls are more likely to be out of school at lower secondary ages than boys regardless of wealth,
distance and household. Women account to almost two third of the world 7775 million illiterate
adults. It is necessary for women to be educated because the less education a woman has or the
less time a woman spends in school reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5-10 percent.
Children with mothers who have received more education are more likely to live longer and
survive beyond the age of 5 compared to those mother who have education. A child that is born
to a mother that is able to read is also more likely to live longer. In countries such as sub-Saharan
Africa it is estimated that 1.8 million childrens lives could have been saved in 2008 if their
mother had at least a secondary education. Also in Indonesia, 68 percent of mothers who

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attended secondary school are immunized because they were taught these things in school
however 19 percent of the mothers of these children did not attend school. Educating more
women can also help to reduce poverty. Women who are more educated on topics such as
pregnancy, abstinence, sexual protection, and sexually transmitted diareses can better plan how
they want to have children and when they want to have and how to protect themselves. It is also
proven that women who have some form of formal education whether primary or secondary are
more likely to seek medical care and be better informed about proper health care practices for
themselves and their children. The children of these women are more likely to have higher
survival rates and receive better nourishment.
Diseases such as HIV/AIDS that plague many countries can also be reduced with the help
pf proper education. If the people in your society are well educated on the transmission and
prevention of this disease, then persons will be more careful and use the necessary protection.

Figure 1.

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Figure 1. Above shows the levels of education that women who seek testing for HIV and Aids.
The amount of women with secondary education are higher than those having less education.
This shows just how education on the disease has allowed these women to take the necessary
precautions needed to ensure that their child is in healthy condition.

Figure 2.
Figure 2 above shows the knowledge of the HIV/AIDS virus in different countries. The level of
education in grad 6 students on the matter is highest in South Africa and Botswana but extremely
low in countries like Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.
In conclusion, Education will always be the stepping stone to achieving greater things
economically, socially and as individuals it is a way for us to improve ourselves so that we can
attain a better quality of life. Although many individuals that live in third world countries are not
given the opportunity because of lack of resources within the country for example not having the
right school supplies, lack of teachers and overcrowded or no classrooms it is vital that we work

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together to help these countries achieve their goals. UNESCO and its 6 Millennium Goals to
achieve an Education for all is helping many countries to slowly attain their goals so that no
child can be left out. Educations is highly important mainly in these countries because it helps to
educate the persons in these societies on general issues that plague these countries like
AIDS/HIV, Poverty and Gender equality. Overtime with great effort all these goals will be
achieved.

Works Cited

Ward, Ted W. Education for Developing Nations: Equality of Educational Opportunities. Common
Ground Journal v11 n1 (2013): 20-27. EBSCO. 17 November 2015.

Hadden, Kenneth, and Bruce London. "Educating Girls in the Third World; the Demographic, Basic
Needs, Economic Benefits." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 37.1-2 (1996): 31-46.
EBSCO. 30 November 2015.

Matsuura Koichiro. Ending Poverty Through Education: The challenge of Education for all UN
Chronicle Dec. 2013: 37-39. Print.

Karam, Azza. "Education as a Pathway towards Gender Equality." UN Chronicle 2013: 31-36. Print.

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UNESCO. Education for all Movement, 1945. Web. 19 November 2015.