Role of education in alleviating vulnerability
Benefits of investment in education
Investing in education involves acquisition of skills and
competences; knowledge and development of skills and attitudes. The concept of
investment ultimately implies that there are returns and profits in the future.
Developing countries have invested in education for a number
of reasons including:
·
Manpower demands
·
Encouraging modern attitudes
·
Acculturating diverse groups
·
Providing economic
opportunities for the people
Some of the benefits of investing in education include the
following:
a) Increased
lifetime earnings
Studies
have been done on income levels and it has been established that there is very
high correlation between level of education and lifetime earnings. This can be
illustrated in age earning profiles:
 |
University
Diploma
Earnings Certificate
a.
Age
b) Improved
standards of living.
When
income increases individuals are able to enhance their overall standards of
living. A higher income means that individuals have more disposable income to
spend.
c) Increased
productivity:
More
education may also contribute to raised quality of labour force and hence
increased productivity within a given period. A better-educated person is
likely do a good job than less educated one.
d) Increased
national wealth:
The state
benefits in number of ways as a result of educating its people. First as people
gain more, the increased productivity leads to individual’s ability to save
more and pay taxes.
e)
Poverty
reduction
The
level of poverty in a society can be eradicated by educating members of a
society; this is because poverty arises as a result of low human capital
endowment or labour market discrimination in absence of this educated people
access job in both formal and informal sectors.
f)
Social economic ability
An
educated individual whether employed or jobless is able to acquire an elevated
class simply because of acquired knowledge and skills which other members of
society do not have.
g)
Prestige
Having
undergone an education programme one acquires a sense of satisfaction. The same
educational and learning programs that carry a lot of educate individuals are
better placed when it comes to the number and type of people they interact
with. Education is known to improve people’s social interactive skills
especially when still at the institutions of learning. While in the
institutions individuals (students) get an opportunity to meet and interact
with people from different parts of the country or the world;
h) Increase in Literacy levels-
A literate
society is able to acquire information, interpret it without changing the
content;
i)
Good
Governance-
Most
educated societies cannot vote in an autocratic leader. Education enlightens
the society their civil rights and qualities that make a good leader. Educated
leaders on the other hand are a benefit to the society because they are better
placed to make well-informed decisions concerning governing of the people.
j)
Reduction
in Petty Crime-
Education
plays a crucial role in lowering of petty crime in the society. There is a very
strong negative correlation between the levels of petty crime with levels of
education.
k) Fertility Reduction: -
Studies
have revealed that there is inverse relationship between education of women and
size of her family (Schultz, 1993). An educated woman will not be in a position
to have many children because of the following reasons:
- She would probably get married at a later age;
- She has adequate knowledge on contraceptives and economically empowered to afford them;
- Educated woman weighs the cost involved in raising children.
VULNERABILITY
Vulnerability refers to any condition or susceptibility to external shocks that could threaten people’s lives and livelihoods, natural resources, properties and infrastructure, economic productivity and a region’s prosperity.
Types of vulnerability
In its sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. These impacts are due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural values.A cognitive vulnerability, in cognitive psychology, is an erroneous belief, cognitive bias, or pattern of thought that is believed to predispose the individual to psychological problems.
It is in place before the symptoms of psychological disorders start to appear; after the individual encounters a stressful experience, the cognitive vulnerability shapes a maladaptive response that may lead to a psychological disorder. In psychopathology, cognitive vulnerability is constructed from schema models, hopelessness models, and attachment theory. Attentional bias is one mechanism leading to faulty cognitive bias that leads to cognitive vulnerability. Allocating a danger level to a threat depends on the urgency or intensity of the threshold.
iii) Military
In military terminology, vulnerability is a subset of survivability, the others being susceptibility and recoverability. Vulnerability is defined in various ways depending on the nation and service arm concerned, but in general it refers to the near-instantaneous effects of a weapon attack. In aviation it is defined as the inability of an aircraft to withstand the damage caused by the man-made hostile environment. In some definitions, recoverability (damage control, firefighting, restoration of capability) is included in vulnerability. Some military services develop their own concept of vulnerability.Sources of Vulnerability
Poverty and race.
Discussion of vulnerability inevitably involves poverty and race and related issues of stigma and discrimination. Low income and education from early life and often over the life course, is associated with a wide range of vulnerabilities. Poor socioeconomic status (SES), for example, is linked to deficiencies in prenatal and early nutrition. Malnourished children develop differently, have lower educational achievement, are more likely to have lower SES in later life, and have higher cardiovascular and other illnesses and mortality compared with children who received proper nutrition. Such factors interact in complex ways, and both early developmental experiences and low social status and later adversities contribute to poor future health and mortality.Studies of parenting find that low family income and maternal hardship hamper children’s cognitive and social competence. Moreover, parents in poor living environments have difficulty nurturing and protecting their children, increasing the likelihood that children will gravitate into activities and peer associations leading to school dropout, premature sexual experience, use of drugs, and other deviant behavior. Family deprivations also increase the probability of abuse and neglect of children, who then seek to escape the household early, associate with inappropriate peers, form tenuous sexual partnerships, have early pregnancies, and often replicate the pattern of inadequate parenting they experienced as children.
Low income and educational attainment have many consequences, affecting knowledge, employment possibilities, housing, nutrition, access to medical care, and much more. Social vulnerabilities associated with low SES are commonly linked as well to racial and ethnic residential separation in communities with poor schools, deficient community institutions, and inferior health-enhancing environments. The poorest residential areas are commonly characterized by noise, heavy traffic, pollution, crime and victimization, high density of liquor outlets, and easy access to illegal drugs. Studies repeatedly find that such neighborhoods have a high prevalence of major disorders and deviant behavior, including infant mortality, substance abuse, school dropout, unemployment, HIV and other STDs, tuberculosis, suicide, mental illness, and crime. Poor and minority children growing up in these environments are vulnerable.
Vulnerability is exacerbated by stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, which in turn lead to segregation by race and class and high concentrations of devalued people, such as those with serious and persistent mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders and those with a history of arrest and incarceration. These stigmatized populations are commonly excluded as well from public programs designed to aid the “deserving” poor.
People under correctional supervision, for example, share multiple vulnerabilities, with large overrepresentation of racial/ethnic minorities, people with mental illnesses, and people with little education and unstable work histories. In 2004 there were more than two million people in correctional institutions and almost five million on probation. Many are incarcerated for minor violations of punitive drug laws, and such people not uncommonly have serious mental illnesses and substance abuse co morbidities. On reentry to the community, they face daunting problems involving housing, subsistence, and receipt of appropriate medical care.
Social networks and lack of social support.
Many people in impoverished communities and in much less deprived communities as well, are often vulnerable because of their precarious ties to social networks and lack of needed social supports. Such networks provide both emotional and practical help in dealing with stressors and often make the difference between successful and inadequate coping. Social isolation is commonly found among the oldest old, whose social networks have become depleted by death and incapacitating illness and among others such as people from households disrupted because of divorce, separation, or death, or people with severe and persistent mental illnesses and other disabilities. They are especially vulnerable during community disruptions and disasters, lacking the resources to protect themselves. Deaths among African Americans and the elderly during Hurricane Katrina and the large numbers of elderly deaths that occurred in the United States and Europe during recent heat waves have reflected the inadequacy of resources, networks, and community preparedness.Personal limitations.
Ultimately, vulnerability is expressed at the individual level, however important the social and neighborhood context. Physical and cognitive impairments and serious, persistent illnesses exacerbate vulnerabilities, and many of these problems, such as very low birth weight, congenital defects, childhood abuse and deprivation, conduct disorder, and learning difficulties, begin early in life and make later problems more likely. Early recognition and intervention often prevent serious harm. Moderating the effects of many of these early personal vulnerabilities depends on good access to high-quality medical care and specialized rehabilitation services that are usually less accessible to the poor and uninsured.Physical location.
A major part of the population is vulnerable because of location, such as in low-density and impoverished rural areas; urban ghettos; or other places associated with underdeveloped or deteriorating infrastructure; lack of employment opportunities; inadequate medical, social, and educational services; poor transportation and communication facilities; high crime and victimization; and exposure to environmentally adverse conditions. With economic deprivation and limited opportunities, outmigration of the young and better educated results in unbalanced age distributions, leaving those remaining more vulnerable and with inadequate support.
HOW EDUCATION HELPS TO ALLEVIATE VULNERABILITY
1.
The impact of a girl’s (years
in school) education on her surrounding (community, country and her future
children and health)
·
Children of women who have
completed primary school are 40% less likely to die before the age of five
·
A woman with any education is
50% more likely to have her child immunized
·
In developing countries, women
with seven or more years of schooling have between 2 and 3 fewer children than
women with fewer than 3 years of schooling.
·
Studies indicate that the
investment in the education of girl child raised the GDP of the entire country
by 0.2%
2.
Impact of girls education on a
girl’s life
·
Women with no education are 5
times more likely to lack basic information about HIV/AIDS.
·
Women with seven or more years
of education marries 4 years later and have fewer children
·
An extra year of primary school
boosts girls’ eventual wage by 10-20% and an extra year in secondary school
boosts by 15-25%
Girls’ education has multiplier
effects i.e. benefits of girls’ education will be passed on to her children
ending intergenerational poverty.
3.
Incarceration and conviction
rates are high among the least educated.
4.
Educational attainment improves
health. Additional years of schooling reduces current smoking rates by at least
10%
5.
Additional years of schooling
increases voter registration and voting. Education increases political
interests and other forms of political participation as well as the extent to
which individuals are informed about politics.
6.
Education provides people with
economic opportunities as well as improving the productive capabilities of the
labour force hence breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
References
Cannon T. (2001) ‘Vulnerability analysis and disaster’
In D. Parker (ed) Floods.
London:
Routledge.
Narayan D. Et. Al (1999) Can Anyone Hear Us? Voices from
47 countries.
Washington
DC: World Bank Poverty Group.
Wisner B (2001) Sustainable Livelihood and Vulnerability
to Disaster. London:
BGHCR.
