Education and money

My mind has been humming with lots of questions and thoughts that I am trying to process. Have met parents who have had to take their children out of school because they can’t afford school fees. Other parents can’t afford to send their children to school at all. And then hearing of children fortunate enough to have an education, but receiving low results, possibly because of large class sizes and poor resources – human and physical.

Prosperity messages and talk of money is everywhere! Education is needed to make money but education costs money. Money is required when marrying a girl (dowry), and the higher the girl’s education the higher the dowry. And if a couple have a child out of wedlock then under cultural law the man must pay the woman’s family a ‘fine’. Again, the more educated the woman, the higher the fine.

The ‘cycle of poverty’ is far more complex than I can understand.

One of the eight Millennium Development Goals is to achieve universal primary education. Possible if education is free.