Research Paper on Empowering Girls Through Education: A Path to Sustainable Development

Introduction

Education has been fronted by many cultures and societies around the world as the key to sustainable development, source of livelihood, and employment. Education for the girl child has further been recommended as the only means of reaching out to the poor girl child and the community at large. One of the leading causes of poverty and underdevelopment in the developing nations is the unequal distribution of resources and the inadequate penetration of education opportunities. The fewer access people have to education, the more they are likely to suffer from such ills as unemployment and a lack of a source of income. While education is beneficial for the community, educating the girl child reaches out to the entire family because it helps to develop the social, economic, and political wellbeing of the entire community.

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The idea that any child, especially young girls, could be denied quality education due to poverty, custom, the law, or terrorist threats is unimaginable. Every girl, no matter what part of the world she is from, has a right to learn. High-quality girls' education can lead to excellent outcomes that change many people's lives (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015). It is essential to understand that girls' education is an investment. It contributes to wages, growth, and upward mobility while positively affecting productivity on agriculture (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015).

Poverty defines a state of a lack of enough material and financial resources required to sustain a standard way of life. This means the income individuals in a population receive is insufficient to sustain their basic needs (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015). Income inequality speaks to the uneven distribution of resources that are usually in the control of the few elites. It captures a widening rift in the socioeconomic difference between the rich and the poor. Income inequality and poverty share a typical coefficient in the sense that they occur and exist as one.

The control of wealth by a few individuals inhibits efforts put forth by governments in a bid to reduce the levels of poverty, and this is likely to remain the case for a long time. In 2016, the wealth of eight men amounted to that of more than 3.6 billion people around the world, and this number represented 62 people the previous year (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015). On the one hand, it reveals equality in terms of wealth distribution whereas, on the other hand, it reveals the prevalence of gender inequality. Thanks to economic security programs against poverty, the number of people below the line of poverty reduced by nearly half. The safety net of policies of government assistance lifted more than 36 million people and reduced the rate of poverty from 25% to 13% (Freeman, 2018). Therefore, the developing nations lack the power to control the private wealth concentrated in the hands of a few individuals. However, they can evenly allocate public resources to reach out to the needy populations.

People who come from poverty-stricken backgrounds are relatively unable to afford higher education even though education is perceived as an equalizer that creates opportunities for the poor. Initiatives such as Child Fund have been instituted and placed in many developing nations whereby education is free, and this allows more children from impoverished backgrounds access to primary education (Moon, 2013). Even though this is the case, individual children still have to meet the cost of uniforms and textbooks, and this sets back some of them to the point of dropping out of school. Additionally, the cost of transportation and movement of learners from their homes to their schools is, at times, inhibitive. This makes it impossible for them to attend school even when, indeed, education is fully funded by non-governmental organizations. Therefore, although education may be free for people in poor developing nations, the intensity of poverty obscures their ability to make it to school and acquire an education.

Besides primary education, which is mandatory for all populations, higher education is continuously becoming elusive, especially for minority students in countries like the US, where the cost of tuition fees for college students remains unaffordable for most of the population. This occurs at the backdrop of a society in which higher and higher academic achievements are required to secure a job due to the high levels of saturation in the job market (Garritzmann, 2018). Initially, it was possible for new graduates to land decent jobs and acquire sustainable income and hence escape the cycle of poverty. However, over time, this has changed since the number of graduates has increased, and this has led to saturation and congestion of the job market. Consequently, acquiring a decent job means acquiring two or more degrees or enrolling for masters and even PhDs. Therefore, the escalation in the cost of primary education has proven problematic for the modern impoverished population. Moreover, it has also ensured that the poor remain poor and the constant widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

World nations are experiencing uneven distribution of resources within, and between them, and these mean factors, such access to healthcare is an excellent issue of socioeconomic disparity between individuals. Freeman (2018) posits that societies must work towards finding solutions for poverty by considering global realities that are connected to the different socioeconomic challenges involved. The majority of the world's poor, yet working population are women, and this places strain on the entire family since women are the backbone of the family. Women are underrepresented in senior positions in firms across the globe, and this decreases their likelihood of being hired. Women have little control regarding intimate household matters including how they spend their money. Therefore, issues like healthcare and other social amenities must be made available for the highly marginalized sections of the populations, and this will ensure that they are at par with the rest of the societies.

Corrupt, inept and incompetent governance among the emerging nations is another factor inadvertently and deliberately increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. When government officials inappropriate funds meant for the enrichment and the development of people from poverty-stricken areas, they deny them the opportunity for development. This leads to even more poverty, disease, and other instances (Johnstone, 2015). Even though corruption is typically connected with the image of people getting rich, it leads to poverty and suffering among the general majority in many instances. The connection between corruption and poverty affects typically people and the businesses they operate. This means that the environment is never permissive enough to allow businesses to thrive. According to Johnston (2015), it distorts, misdirects, and leads to the loss of funds in the hands of a few individuals. Therefore an increase in the proliferation of corruption leads to an increase in poverty and suffering for the general majority.

The creation of more employment opportunities for households living below the poverty level is necessary to increase the amount of disposable income and ameliorate the standards of living. According to Karagiannaki (2017), governments like Iceland demonstrate that it is possible to institute and require companies to have a set number of positions for marginalized communities. Although some scholars argue that this promotes laziness and entitlement in women, a competitive and thorough search for female candidates can yield the required outcome. According to Murtaza and Faridi (2015), people in poor households only need to be exposed to the same amount of opportunities as the rich in society for them to display the peak of their potential. Therefore, income inequality is more artificial than it is natural, and this can be cured by evenly and deliberately distributing resources to all members of society.

An affordable, efficient, reliable, and constant source of energy and power is a necessary tool in which policymakers and governments must invest to help improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty and dire need of essential yet necessary services. Park and Mercado (2015) posit that an increase in the inclusion of various populations in the issue of finances reduces poverty as well as income inequality. Age dependency ratios, per capita information and indicators of financial inclusion are essential parameters that planners and policymakers must consider when developing new policies aimed at evenly distributing resources and managing socioeconomic disparity between the rich and the poor (Park & Mercado, 2015). Therefore, whereas an affordable source of energy ensures energy for all, a constant source of healthcare and other essential social amenities places all populations on the same pedestal over which they can compete for resources and afford an excellent standard of living.

The literacy levels of girls across the globe are limited, and this is indicated by the low number of girls and young women who manage to graduate from primary and secondary schools.

Only 89% of girls complete secondary education around the globe. The number is even lower for those who complete secondary schools whereas, in the developing nations, the number drops to a third for girls in secondary schools and two thirds for those in primary schools. While some of them become pregnant before completing secondary or primary school, others are prohibited by their culture and therefore have to drop out of school. Some girls are forced into early marriages, further dimming their prospects of ever completing school. They are always forced to marry older men with the promise of completing school, but their dreams are quickly shattered when they begin giving birth at an early age. In many developing nations, girls are forced into marriage as a way of helping their communities or families to escape from poverty. Upon marriage to the older individuals, their families are paid dowry that is used to educate boys in the home.

Education is a leading factor that has helped to alleviate poverty and ameliorate standards of living in the 21st century. The impact of education has been so practical that many have managed to uplift entire communities using education. The United Nations (UN) fronts access to education as a basic human need necessary for the amelioration of standards of living and elevating people from extreme poverty. It is no coincidence that one of the significant factors that inhibit growth and development in developing nations is the uneven distribution of academic resources. Many of the developing nations prioritize education for the boys as opposed to educating girls, and this leaves many of them in the peripheries. Whereas this is the case, many of the girls in the developing nations are likely to become pregnant before reaching puberty, and this further complicates the equation and prevents them from accessing employment.

Education for the girl child unlocks the infinite potential that allows them to be active members of society and contribute to the collective responsibility of nation-building. More people working and employed means the government has more people to tax and therefore, more money to help it finance essential projects.

Dollar et al. (1999) focuses on how gender is related to the development and highlights gender inequality concerning income and overall growth in the developing world compared to that of the developed world. Furthermore, inequality in health and education is also explained to be due to religious reasons or individual freedoms. The author suggests that low investment in women is not efficient for the economy...