The Key to Success

A strong predictor of a successful adulthood is the accessibility to an education in youth.

From an American point of view, living in such a modern world, one would would assume that information and facts are in reach to anyone who wishes to obtain it. However, our counterpart countries would disagree.

Education is something that is readily available to any child in the U.S. Public and private institutions have been implemented as school systems in communities, and the only distinction between the two are for relative reasons such as preference of choice of the parent.

Nonetheless, economic status does not inhibit a child from going to an institution of education. The U.S even has gone as far as implementing the Compulsory School Age Requirement Law, which refers to the minimum and maximum age required by each state in which a student must be enrolled in and attending public school or some equivalent education program defined by the law.

The emphasis on education in the United States is so strong that even children and youth experiencing homelessness have the opportunity and right to attend. Schools would be considered a source of stability, affirmation, and hope for theses kids during a time of chaos and trauma when a young person loses his or her housing.


So, all in all, no child is denied or can be denied the right to an education. On the other hand, this system or set of laws is not consistent to several countries around the world where parents decide whether their children will attend school or not.

At this point in the conversation, the economic status of the child plays a key role in their attendance. In countries of extreme poverty, such as those located in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and countries conflicted by certain situation (mostly central to the southern Americas) education is not emphasized. Every person in the family who can provide some sort of monetary contribution is vital for their survival, making it impossible to risk the unemployment of one member of the family. People in these situations, from a young age are taught to work rather that educate themselves. This mentality perpetuates an endless cycle of uneducated people for generations to come in those bloodlines making it much more difficult to have any one person in those linages to change their customs from one day to another.  It is a kind of unintentional tunnel vision.

Due to these issues, 25 million children will never go to school.

It is important to note that Investing in education can help a country lift its people out of poverty. Over forty years, equitable access to quality education can help a country raise a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by 23%. Several of these countries who do not emphasize the importance of getting an education had a GDP ranging from $300-$1000 in a 2013 calculation. Such countries include: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi, Afghanistan, etc. 

Another distinction in international countries that incapacitates a child’s ability to go to school is gender. Females have less of a chance, in fact, there are four million more girls than boys who cannot get an education. This not only has a profound effect on the child but on the community as well. For instance, if a child had a mother who can read, they are 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. This is why education should be of equal opportunity to both female and males because lives are actually at stake.

Credits: Koustav Das

The impact of educating girls goes beyond the individual child. Here are a few facts provided by Free The Children non-profitorganization:

•      The impact of school on a woman’s earning power is linked directly to higher economic growth. In developing countries, each additional year of schooling is associated with a 10% to 20% increase in women’s wages.

•      When women and girls earn an income, they re-invest 90% of that income back into their families, as opposed to 30 to 40% for men.

•      Educated girls are more likely to marry later and have fewer children. For example, women in Mali with a secondary school education or higher have an average of three children, while those with no education have an average of seven.

•      Children born to educated mothers are less likely to be malnourished, according to UNESCO. In fact, each additional year a girl goes to school helps reduce the child mortality rate by 2%.

•      Educated girls are less vulnerable to sexual exploitation and to sexually transmitted disease.

In the video above, Kakenya Ntaiya, an activist of educating girls, explains her story and why she contributes to this cause.


In essence, children need structure. Schooling provides that foundation where sometimes it falters at home. The more they learn the better off they are when dealing with difficult decision making later in life and females should be treated with the same urgency to be educated as males because of the role they play in society as primary care givers. For all these reasons and more, education really can be seen as the key to it all and we must start with the youth.