Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
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2.2 BOTTLENECKS AND BARRIERS
Poverty
Poverty is a persistent problem in the OIC and stands out as the strongest barrier in access
to education in the OIC.121 The average poverty rate is higher in the OIC countries compared to
the world. For OIC countries with data for 2003- 2014, on average, 25.2 percent of the population
were living with less than 1.90$ a day as opposed to 10.7 percent in the World.122 Yet poverty
rates vary tremendously between member countries. Among the countries in the OIC with data
available, the poverty headcount ratio is lowest in Kazakhstan with only 0.04 percent of the
population living with less than 1.90$ a day in 2013 as opposed to Mozambique where the same
rate was 68.7 percent in 2008. In most member countries poor children are less likely to attend
school (See . Among the 42 OIC countries with data available, in 23 of them the gap
between the primary net attendance rate of poor and rich children is more than 10 percentage
points and in 17 of them it is more than 20 percentage points. In Burkina Faso where the gap is
the largest for attending primary education, out of every 100 children of primary school age, in
the poorest households only 31 of them attend primary school as opposed to 81 children for the
richest households. Nigeria, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Pakistan are the other OIC countries where it
is more than twice as likely for children to attend primary education if they are living in the richest
20 percent of the households in the country compared to children living in the poorest 20 percent.
Poor children are even more disadvantaged in access to lower secondary education (See
anel B). The number of countries with a gap of more than 20 percentage points is higher
for lower secondary education with 27 countries (out of 42). In some countries poor children are
almost not attending lower secondary education all together. Less than 1 child in every 10 poor
children is attending lower secondary education in 12 of the member countries with Mauritania
having the lowest rate with only 2.0 percent. In other words in Mauritania only 2 out of every 100
poor children are attending lower secondary education.
121 The gaps are wider for poverty compared to the gaps in location or gender (Se n .
122 This average is calculated for the 37 countries with data available in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators
database. Data from the latest year that the poverty headcount ratio is available is used. The rate for the World is for year 2013.