Chapter 3:

Reaching the Marginalized

Karen González
Javiera Rodríguez
Francisca Riquelme
Joaquín Martínez
Wilson Quintanilla
 Reaching the marginalized

Even though every government in the Dakar Framework for Action realizes the
importance of equal opportunities for education, as restricting education is seen as a
violation to human rights, most of them have failed to the pledge of identifying and
responding flexibly to the needs and circumstances of the poorest and marginalized.
And the failure on this matter is importantly holding back the progress on the Education
for All goals to be reached by 2015. Reaching the marginalized and the disadvantaged
or poorest should be a high priority for every government.

Measuring the marginalization is a really difficult task and many countries lack of the
information on identified marginalized groups. So this is why this chapter gives new
tools to determine it and find out the best ways to educate people in this situation. The
Deprivation and Marginalization in Education (DME) data set is a new tool created in
this year to create a standard on the marginalization and social composition of the
marginalized groups for any country. The DME takes information from eighty different
countries’ surveys and polls and divides marginalized groups into three big aspects
depending on their years of education: The education poverty (Up to twenty-two years
old with less than four years of education), extreme education poverty (fewer than two
years of education, most probably facing health employment problems) and the bottom
20% (less than a year of education or none at all). DME also helps to identify the factors
that impulse this inequality for education, as there can be seen that two or more factors
can lead to marginalization (wealth, gender, region, religion, being born in a poor
household, living in rural low-income areas, etc) which has proven the importance of
social factors for the marginalization of groups, factors that children have no way to
control or prevent. Also socio-economic status makes it to greatly vary the opportunities
a child will have for education.

Marginalization reaches every country; the fact is that richer countries have an average
above the other countries, just in the European Union, 15% of the people within
eighteen and twenty-two years old dropout with less than secondary education. In the
US, comparing with white American children, African-Americans are twice likely to be
out of school, and children within poor households are three times or more. Measuring
the marginalization is not the solution obviously, but it is a tool for governments to
realize where the real problems are located and the reasons of it, so they can start
finding solutions to solve this major slowdown for the Education for All goals.

Getting left behind

Marginalization in education can be found in all societies, but there are some social
groups more affected than others, especially those related to poverty, gender and
ethnicity.
Poverty generally pushes children out of school mainly because children need to get a
job to support their families. Gender creates a big difference between girls and boys’
education. The same happens when cultural beliefs which clash with the educational
system.
One reason of marginalization in education is poor householders. They can keep their
children out school because they do not have enough resources to send their children
schools –even though when schools are free from fees—because informal or indirect
fees related to books and uniforms are very expensive.

Another reason is the economic shocks. The poorest households are most likely to
suffer bad consequences from the hostile environment. For example, Pastoralists’ crops
have been affected because of the droughts or floods.

Consequently, children have to help their parents with the labors for increasing the
family income. Statistics say that there are more children involved in full-time work and
many of them have malnutrition problems lowering their ability to learn. In 2004, the
International Labor Organization stated that 166 million children aged 5 to 14 were
child labourers and those who work more than 30 hours a week are more unlikely to
attend school.

To prevent this marginalization is necessary an effective legislation, and also more

economic incentives to keep children in school.

This type of marginalization has many sources: race, ethnicity, language, poverty, and
health status. Children whose parents are members of an ethnic group or a low caste
minority enter school but are exposed to discrimination and social exclusion, and
generally they end up drop out school. Besides, one of the main reasons indigenous
people --especially women-- are more likely to leave school is because of the lack of
money and housework, which is directly related to poverty.

Language is other important factor that restricts the opportunities for education in ethnic
groups. If they cannot speak a country’s dominant language, they have more difficulties
to learn. Today there are programs that incorporate indigenous languages, but they are
not good enough yet.

Many of slums inhabitants are considered ―illegal‖ residents by their governments,

which affects them by not being considered in the distribution of basic services,
including education. Another major issue slum dwellers must face in connection with
education is their environment. The lack of security and physical violence are essential
factor in caregiver’s decision of not sending their children to school.

Rural area education is affected by low population density, meaning that children have
to cover long distances, sometimes they have to cope with physical barriers which,
along with domestic labor, keep children –especially girls- away from education.

Cultural differences between tradition-based and formal education play an important

role when it comes to drive off children from school. Many caregivers do not think of
formal education as an answer to solve their specific problems.

Armed conflicts affect education by putting people involved in education in danger,

creating refugee population, and causing political instability.
Besides the obvious physical and mental disadvantages, children with disabilities must
deal with other problems in order to get a proper education, such as the discrimination
by the society, the wide range of types of disabilities, as well as the lack of an adequate
staff and infrastructure in schools.

HIV and AIDS reinforce marginalization in education by creating a strong

discrimination towards the affected ones, applying an extra economical load, and -in a
more indirect way- leaving children with no caregivers.

Levelling the playing field

Providing opportunities for these marginalized groups requires more than the expansion
of education and the improvement of the quality of this one. It also requires policies that
target the causes of marginalization in education. Levelling the playing field identifies
three main levels of intervention: accessibility and affordability, learning environment,
and entitlement and opportunities.

To make education accessible for all children, classrooms should be built closer to
marginalized areas. Improving the school infrastructure and transportation will help
children with disabilities to have an easier access to education. Schools also should
provide a flexible schedule and curricula in a proper language according to the local
context. Many countries have implemented the system of ―satellite schools‖ which
consists on a principal well-resourced school and several, smaller satellites which works
with a multigrade system consisting on a classroom where different grades are taught by
one teacher. Other countries have promoted the use of technology for making education
more accessible.
Making education affordable not only means to cut direct costs such as school fees, but
also it involves to lower indirect costs such as uniforms, textbooks and materials.
Stipend programs can help parents to afford education of their children and to keep
them on the school system.
Furthermore, non-governmental organizations have developed and implemented
innovative strategies in education; these support the reintegration children, youth, and
adult into the formal schooling.

Government commitment is needed to achieve an inclusive education, since it has the

faculty to allocate public spending more equitable and the power to create new laws to
address equity and marginalization in education. By allocating public spending, the
government will have a budget to fight against marginalization, being able to offer
financial incentives to encourage teacher to go to demanding schools or to areas with
difficult living conditions and to support children’s education health and nutrition
through social protection programs, which range from cash transfer to employment-
based safety nets and interventions to support nutrition.
Many of these programs are on the condition of sending kids to schools keeping
children in school and attending health clinics.

Training teachers with the purpose of allocating them in marginalized areas or schools,
Governments mitigate the disadvantages of marginalized children, as well as attract
good teachers and encourage more people from marginalized communities to become
teachers.