Why Education Matters When 273 Million Children Are Out of School
- ajoyce140
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
“To believe that every student succeeds solely through effort is to ignore the massive structural walls built in front of the marginalized.” - Anonymous
Table of Contents
Life is made up of many small privileges. The privilege to drink clean water, to eat when you are hungry, to sleep somewhere safe, to speak and be heard, and to open a book and learn.
When these things have always been part of our lives, it is easy to think of them as ordinary. We may not even recognize them as privileges at all. This is not the case for too many people in the world who have very few privileges
The family, country and community a child is born into can shape the opportunities available to them long before they are old enough to make choices for themselves. According to UNESCO, 273 million children and young people around the world are out of school, or approximately one in six school-age children. This is exactly why education matters today.
Not Every Child Starts at the Same Line
Sometimes, it takes seeing a physical representation of an idea to understand it more thoroughly.
A video shared around the world demonstrated the idea of privilege with a simple race. Adam Donyes, founder of the Link Year program, brought a group of students to a field and asked them to line up shoulder to shoulder, with a $100 bill waiting at the finish line.
Whoever reached it first would win. But before the race began, Donyes started making statements.
Take two steps forward if you grew up with a father figure in the home.
Take two steps forward if you had access to a private education.
Take two steps forward if you never had to help your parents with the bills.
Take two steps forward if you never had to wonder where your next meal was coming from.
Before anyone had been given the opportunity to run, some students were already far ahead of others. Donyes then asked the students at the front to turn around and look behind them.
Every advantage that had moved them forward, he pointed out, had nothing to do with a decision they had made themselves. They still had to run the race, but they were not running it from the same starting line.
The exercise makes something complicated remarkably simple to see. The students did not choose the circumstances that moved them forward or held them back, and this is also the case of every child around the world.
Takeaway: This powerful exercise demonstrates how privilege can shape a child’s opportunities before they have even had the chance to make their own choices.
The Circumstances We Never Chose
In 2013, Angelina Jolie spoke about the concept of privilege while accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's Governors Awards. Reflecting on the survivors of war, famine, and violence she had met through her humanitarian work, Jolie wondered why she had been born with the opportunities she received while another woman, with the same abilities, desires, and love for her family, instead found herself living in a refugee camp.
“I don't know why this is my life, and that's hers.”
It is a simple observation, and an important one. None of us chose where we were born, the financial circumstances of our parents, whether our childhood would unfold during peace or conflict, whether clean water would come from a tap or require a long walk, or whether a good school would be waiting for us when we were old enough to attend.
Yet these circumstances can shape so much of what comes next in our lives. The lack of privilege can also be compounded by inequalities ingrained into society: racism, violence, cycles of poverty, gender inequality, discrimination and lack of access to basic services. These are just some of the “massive structural walls built in front of the marginalized” referenced at the beginning of this blog.
Hard work matters but hard work alone cannot overcome every barrier placed in front of a child.
Takeaway: The circumstances we are born into can shape our opportunities long before hard work or personal choices ever enter the equation.
What Privilege Looks Like in Childhood
For a child, privilege does not always look extraordinary. Sometimes it is breakfast before school, shoes to walk there, a backpack to carry or a notebook when the teacher asks you to write something down.
It can mean having books to read, electricity to study after dark and a safe place to sleep so you can wake up ready to learn. It can mean being able to spend your childhood in a classroom instead of working to help your family survive.
These advantages can seem small in isolation. Together, they can influence whether a child can attend school, participate in class, complete their education and eventually have the opportunity to pursue higher education and various kinds of employment
Hunger and Education
For millions of children, even these seemingly ordinary things are not guaranteed. The World Food Programme reports that more than 100 million children in low- and lower-middle-income countries go hungry every day, with millions going to school on an empty stomach.
Hunger does not remain outside the classroom door. A child who has not eaten still has to listen, concentrate, remember and learn.
It is one reason discussions about education and health cannot be separated. UNESCO emphasizes the relationship between health, nutrition and learning, including the importance of school meals, safe learning environments, clean water and sanitation.
Takeaway: For a child, privilege can be as simple as having enough food, clean water, school supplies and a safe place to learn.
One Privilege That Can Create Many More
Life for Relief and Development's (LIFE) Back-to-School Program cannot make every child's starting line equal. It cannot remove every obstacle a child will encounter.
What it can do is provide one important advantage: the opportunity to learn with the supplies needed to participate in school. Through the program, children who have been given very few advantages receive essential school supplies that help them attend school prepared and take part in the classroom.
Last year, LIFE distributed backpacks full of school supplies to12,512 students across 30 countries.
A backpack or notebook may appear to be a small intervention against something as enormous as global inequality. Yet, opportunity builds opportunity, and LIFE's approach to helping children does not begin or end with a backpack.
Takeaway: A backpack full of school supplies may seem small, but access to education can become the first opportunity that leads to many more.
Helping the Whole Child
Education is part of a wider network of LIFE programs designed to address the interconnected needs of children and families around the world. Having a notebook does little for a child who is too hungry to concentrate, and access to a classroom means less when poor health, unsafe water or displacement continually keeps a child away from it.
Through food programs, LIFE provides meals and food assistance to children and families experiencing food insecurity. This includes food distributions connected to schools, helping children begin the school day with something to eat, as well as food assistance that children can bring home to their families.
Life for Relief and Development (LIFE)'s Program Diversity
The importance of this kind of support extends beyond hunger. The World Food Programme reports that at least 466 million children now receive school meals globally, reflecting a growing recognition that nutrition, education and health are closely connected.
For a child who has lost one or both parents, the barriers can be different and often more complex. Through LIFE's Orphan Sponsorship Program, sponsors help provide children facing this loss with consistent access to essentials including food, education, healthcare and clothing.
The goal is to create greater stability around a child so they have a better chance to remain in school, stay healthy, continue growing and imagine a future beyond the circumstances they are living through today.
LIFE's other programs address many of the same barriers from different directions. Clean-water projects help communities access safe water, health programs provide medical care in underserved areas, and community-development projects help provide essential infrastructure.
During emergencies, LIFE also provides food, water, shelter and other immediate assistance to families whose lives have been disrupted by disasters and conflict. For a child, these needs are deeply connected to whether education can continue at all.
These programs may have different names, but in the life of a child, they are rarely separate. Supporting a child's education begins long before they sit down at a desk.
Takeaway: A child’s ability to learn depends on more than school supplies; food, health, clean water, safety and stability all help make education possible.
Education Can Open the Next Door
When we ask why education is important in our lives, the answer reaches far beyond what happens inside a classroom. Education cannot prevent every inequality a child faces, but it can open doors that were previously closed.
Learning can lead to qualifications, employment and greater independence. Higher education can open still more possibilities. And with greater independence can come something that many of us take for granted: choices. Where to live. What work to pursue. How to provide for a family. What future to imagine for one's children.
This is also part of how education affects society. The opportunities given to one child do not necessarily end with that child. Knowledge, income and opportunity can influence families and communities and, eventually, what is possible for the next generation.
Can Education Change Society?
Education can be a powerful part of social and economic change, but education does not exist in isolation. A child still needs food, health, safety, water, teachers, learning materials and the opportunity to enter the classroom in the first place.
The tools available to students are also changing rapidly. AI in education, online learning and other technologies are transforming how some students learn, but these advances highlight a much more fundamental divide: millions of children are still waiting for access to the basics.
Before a child can benefit from technology or AI in education or consider higher education, they first need the opportunity to attend school with the right materials.
Takeaway: Education can turn one opportunity into many by expanding a child’s choices, independence and possibilities for the future.
What We Can Do With the Opportunities We Have
We cannot change the circumstances into which we ourselves were born. We cannot single-handedly remove the inequalities that determine so much of another child's life.
But we can decide what we do with the opportunities we have been given.
Though we wish we could protect children from the extreme disparity, inequality and adversity that so many of them face, we cannot. We can, however, give them one privilege that has the power to create many more: a backpack full of school supplies.
As Dr. Seuss wrote, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
This Back-to-School season, you can help give a child the supplies they need to learn and the opportunity to discover just how far they can go.
Frequently Asked Questions About Education
Why is education important?
Education gives children the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and confidence that can shape the rest of their lives. Access to education can also expand future opportunities for employment, financial independence and higher education.
For children living through poverty, displacement or other difficult circumstances, education can provide something equally important: greater choice over what comes next. This is one reason why education matters far beyond a child's years in the classroom.
How does education affect health?
Education and health are closely connected. UNESCO explains that children and young people who receive a quality education are more likely to be healthy, while children who are healthy are better able to learn and complete their education.
Health, nutrition, clean water, sanitation and safe learning environments can also affect attendance and academic performance. This is why addressing children's basic needs alongside their education can be so important.
How does education affect society?
The impact of education extends beyond one student. Education can contribute to healthier families, stronger communities and greater economic opportunity while giving people the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions throughout their lives.
When a child receives opportunities that their parents did not have, those advantages can also extend to the next generation. In this way, education can become one part of changing the circumstances from which future children begin.
Can education change society?
Education can contribute to long-term social and economic change by expanding knowledge, employment opportunities and people's ability to make informed decisions about their lives.
Its effects can also move between generations. When a child receives opportunities that were unavailable to their parents, those opportunities can influence the circumstances in which their own children eventually begin life.
Why do school meals matter for education?
Hunger makes learning harder. The World Food Programme reports that more than 100 million children in low- and lower-middle-income countries go hungry every day, with millions attending school on an empty stomach.
School meals can support nutrition while encouraging children to attend and remain in school. Globally, at least 466 million children currently benefit from school meal programs.
Is education free in every country?
No. The cost and accessibility of education vary considerably around the world. Even in countries where education is free, families can still face expenses associated with transportation, uniforms, books, school supplies and meals.
For families already struggling to afford basic necessities, these seemingly small expenses can become another barrier standing between a child and the classroom.
Will education be replaced by AI?
AI in education is changing how some students learn, access information and receive educational support, but technology cannot replace a child's fundamental need for access to quality education. Nor will it be able to replace the necessary human benefits of relaying information in person.
For millions of children, the immediate challenge is not whether AI will replace education. It is whether they will have a school to attend, supplies to learn with, enough food to concentrate and the opportunity to receive an education in the first place.
How can I help a child receive an education?
Supporting education can take many forms, from helping provide school supplies and learning materials to supporting programs that address hunger, health, clean water and other barriers that prevent children from attending school.
Through LIFE's Back-to-School Program, donors can help provide children with the essential supplies they need to attend school prepared and participate in their education.
