Educating out of Poverty? A Synthesis Report on Ghana, India ... - DfID

Chapter 2: Linking Education, Skills and Context
2.1 A theoretical framework for investigating the linkages between
education, training and poverty reduction
Our research is based on the assumption that all education and training have the potential to confer a
wide range <strong>of</strong> developmental benefits to the individual, community and the state/nation, but that the
realisation <strong>of</strong> these benefits is dependent on the education and training being embedded within an
enabling environment. The returns to education and training depend on the quality within the
education and training systems, the delivery context, and the environment into which graduates
enter after education and training, the transformative context. These benefits can be povertyreducing
either by helping the poor directly, or indirectly through supporting the delivery context and
the transformative context at community or national levels. The access that the poor themselves have
to different levels <strong>of</strong> education and training is <strong>of</strong> critical importance at the individual and community
level but becomes <strong>of</strong> less importance when the indirect, national level effects are considered.
The different potential pathways from education and training to poverty reduction are
<strong>out</strong>lined below.
Individual benefits
Summary and Core Issues
Chapter 2: Linking Education, Skills and Context
• According to our theoretical model, in order for education and training to impact on
poverty reduction there needs to be an enabling environment in which the education and
training are delivered and in which the knowledge and skills gained can be transformed
into behaviour that promotes individual, community and national level development.
The translation <strong>of</strong> this development into poverty reduction also depends on who has
access to the education and how gains in individual human capital translate into national
development and improved service provision for the poor.
• Research into the effects <strong>of</strong> education and training face a range <strong>of</strong> methodological
considerations. The quality <strong>of</strong> education and the wider context need to be taken into
account when considering educational effects.
• Research into the effect <strong>of</strong> education on farmer productivity illustrates the importance <strong>of</strong>
context. Its subsequent use within policy documents illustrates how easily contextual
factors can be ignored.
• Taking context into account means considering education and training systems holistically,
paying attention to the role <strong>of</strong> post-basic education as well as primary education.
• Key issues arising, which are discussed in further detail in subsequent chapters, include:
the tension between poverty reduction and economic growth; the type <strong>of</strong> education and
training that is needed within developing contexts; the social composition <strong>of</strong> those in
education and training; and the need to both adapt the education and training system to
the environment whilst considering how the environment itself can be improved.
An individual gains skills and knowledge; these enable him/her to improve his/her standard <strong>of</strong>
living through employment, higher wages, more productive farming techniques, more informed
choices ab<strong>out</strong> fertility, avoidance <strong>of</strong> unhealthy practices, etc.
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