Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
74
Results show that living in rural areas is a disadvantage as it is negatively associated in increasing
degrees with all education indicators except finishing 5 years of education. The likelihood of
attendance or finishing education in 2015 is significantly decreased when living in certain regions.
It was not the case in 2005 so this could point to a worsening of the situation or to the change in
administrative boundaries. The negative impact of a household head with a low level of education
is higher in 2015 than in 2005 whereas the negative impact of living in poorer households is
decreasing for school attendance (i.e. similar to the Shapely findings, the impact on access to
wealth is decreasing between 2005 and 2015). Poverty’s negative impact on access rates remains
unchanged for finishing 5 or 8 years of education. Ethnicity seems to have a negative impact as
well on education outcomes but as seen earlier it is more likely to be due to an overlap between
Wolof speaking populations with regions with strong anti-colonial culture and pro-religious
schools. Finally, when it comes to gender, it is boys not girls who seem to be the disadvantaged
group in Senegal, which corroborates the findings in section 2.1. This could be due to (but not
limited to) the fact that boys are more likely than girls to be sent out for work outside the
household (girls tend to do more of the domestic chores) as child labour data shows boys are
more affected 220. In addition, boys are also more likely to be sent to Daaras (informal religious
schools) than girls, but there is lack of data regarding informal schools
Lartes (2012)221 confirms the strong correlations between chronic poverty and the
individual/parental levels of education. One of the main factors explaining low mobility and the
intergenerational transmission of poverty is being out of school. It is observed that more than
84% of the chronic poor are not in school. Of those who fall into chronic poverty, 62% are not in
school. Lack of schooling accentuates vulnerabilities as 42% of the transient poor have not been
in school. Of the 58% transient poor who did attend school, 36% reached primary school and 22%
have reached secondary level and more. Completing primary education therefore emerges as a
key factor in escaping poverty. More than half (52%) of those who have emerged from poverty
are enrolled in school. Similarly, almost 70% of “never been poor” have been to school. Finally,
the data show that the characteristics of the parent (level of education, ethnicity, religion, parent's
own level of poverty) affect the probability of the child entering school with a 20% variability.
Individuals living in chronic poverty face enormous challenges to leave this state because of an
‘immobility’ determined by their living conditions. For example, child poverty has a significant
effect on the likelihood of entering school and chronic poverty in childhood diminishes the
chances of schooling by 64%, compared to non-poverty in childhood. Similarly, the tragic episodes
in childhood reduce the chances of entering school.
220 UNICEF (2016)
221 LARTES (2012) “Analyse des dynamiques de la pauvreté et conséquences sur l’éducation au Sénégal : Un agenda pour
l’action!”