Education holds the key to ending extreme poverty.

Hidden Costs of Education

While free primary education is constitutionally mandated in Nicaragua, this often only holds true in the narrow sense that public schools do not charge for tuition. In actuality, for parents who wish for their children to receive a quality education, the real cost of schooling turns out to be quite high. These “hidden” costs include school fees, uniforms, textbooks, daily meals/snacks, sports equipment, and so on, in addition to the opportunity costs associated with choosing school over work.

The pressure of assuming these financial burdens while losing a potential helping hand at home or another household income (as some form of child labor is quite common in India) often proves to be more than poor families can bear. In addition, the often-poor quality of public schooling eliminates any incentive the family may have to send their children to school. If parents are discouraged from sending their children to school, it is often a result of parents’ perception that school is a waste of time and money. Girls in particular face greater exclusion and hardship in securing a quality education due to cultural and social factors that prioritize the wellbeing of boys and encourage girls to play more traditional roles of homemaker, mother, and day laborer.

Older children in particular frequently miss school during the harvest season because they are needed to help their families and take part in important communal celebrations. Students who do not attend school during these times find it difficult to make up the lost class work, and many eventually drop out.

To read more about the educational challenges of youth in Nicaragua and development challenges of the country as a whole, please read our Nicaragua Need Statement – Vera Corazón School & Visions Global Empowerment – 2017.

Equal Opportunity

By making a high quality education accessible for girls who would otherwise not have access to it, and by providing opportunities for them to engage in extracurricular activities and develop specific skill sets, these students who are typically left behind in the education process, including orphans, dropouts and “underachievers”, will be given the chance to succeed. And indirectly, they often contribute to the development of their own families and villages as well.

Our school aims to serve marginalized and at-risk girls in various communities in and around Matagalpa, Nicaragua who would otherwise not have access to this type of educational or developmental experience.