Fighting poverty with education
“Without a doubt a good education is the way to break the vicious circle of poverty”, says Belgian researcher Ides Nicaise. During the conference held on 28 and 29 September in Ghent, policy makers, experts and people involved in education will meet to think about the role of education in social inclusion.
Indeed, research shows that people with only primary education are four times more likely to end up in poverty than people who hold a higher education degree.
For 30 years now, Ides Nicaise has been doing research into poverty and he is also the chairman of the Service for the Fight against Poverty, Insecurity, and Social Exclusion. “Education and training is indeed very important in the fight against poverty”, he confirms. “People born into poverty, are much more likely to end up in poverty later too. A good education has been found to be the way par excellence to break this vicious circle. In other words, education really can make the difference.”
Large differences
Within the European Union large differences continue to exist in the field of education and training. “For example, the Scandinavian system deals with social inequality remarkably well”, Nicaise says. “Pupils only choose a specific branch of study at the age of sixteen. In this way more young people end up in a course of study that really suits their needs, aspirations and abilities.”
“This is completely different from the rigid Belgian system, which makes pupils choose a course of study at the age of twelve. Conversely, Anglo-Saxon countries tend to have rather poor and child unfriendly social protection systems as well as poor education. Accordingly, we find that child poverty is at an unacceptably high level in these countries.”
Soft policy
“I do hope that social inclusion will be given a more prominent place in European policies”, Nicaise says. Since the introduction of the Lisbon Strategy there has been investment in education and training, but mainly at the top: research and development, university education and new technologies have been given a lot more attention. “Investments at the basic levels are also required. We note that the European policies with respect to social inclusion in education are very soft. A European recommendation about equal opportunities in education and EU legislation to counteract discrimination in education would be a good start. Hopefully this conference can be a first step in that direction.”
