Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
14
academically. Research shows that parents from higher socioeconomic backgrounds tend to
spend more quality time with their children, have lower levels of stress and that parental
attitudes can be significant in ensuring a better home environment. As a result of this, children
from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are likely to perform better at school.40
Location of residence / distance to school
Location, in terms of living in urban or rural areas, is another strong determinant of
educational disparity. Distance to school is a problem in many different places from Latin
America to South Asia.41 Due to absence of schools in rural areas and distance required to travel
to reach the schools, children have difficulties in access to schools. Hattori (2014) in his study of
63 countries finds that on average 9 percent of children in primary or lower secondary school
age are out of school in urban areas as opposed to 18 percent of children living in rural areas.
Yet the same study finds that when household wealth and other factors like age and gender of
the child and household head’s education are controlled for, the marginal effect of location (a
negative effect of living in rural areas) is only significant for 22 countries out of 63 countries,
pointing to the fact that poverty is a stronger determinant of access to education in general.
In general, the negative impact of distance and location increases in the later years of the
education process. This is the result of a lack of schools offering higher levels of education in
the disadvantaged areas. In China, for instance, around 38 percent of rural children were not
able to complete 9-years of compulsory education whereas all urban students enrolled
completed compulsory education. The disparities in enrolment and completion in higher levels
of education become even more dramatic. Out of every 100 rural students, only 6 of them can
enter senior high school and of those students only 3 of them can graduate from senior high
school. In contrast 63 for every 100 urban students enter senior high school, and all of those
who enter graduate.42
Apart from having a difficulty in access, children in rural areas are also disadvantaged
with respect to school quality. Schools in rural settings tend to be underdeveloped, lack
necessarymaterials and equipment and suffer from low teacher quality or a shortage of teaching
staff. Research suggests that rural students underperform in mathematics and literacy
compared to their urban counterparts pointing to a lower quality of education in these schools.
This finding is almost always accurate in any countries regardless of the level of development.43
Lack of availability of a school nearby particularly negatively affects girls’ education.44
When walking distance to school is high and there is no public transportation available families
have a higher tendency not to send their children to school and this is especially the case for
girls. In Uganda for instance for secondary schools when schools are further away from 45
minutes walking distance the probability of enrolment was found to drop significantly for girls
40 (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, & Britto, 1999; Gupta, Wit, & McKeown, 2007; Noble et al., 2015).
41 (UNICEF-UIS, 2015)
42 (Zhang, Lin, & Xue, 2015)
43 (Williams, 2005)
44 (UNICEF-UIS, 2015)