Imagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don't need to imagine it. It's called the United States of America.

quote by Thomas Sowell
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no nation can progress
if welfare of the masses is ignored
and the poor turns poorer

senryu by John Celes
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(Africa poems) I wallow alone in my poverty

Do not come to haul
Me out of my poverty.Rush
To end your own poverty
Of the spirit.I wallow alone
In my sea of poverty

poem by Ngaka Motaung
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Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

quote by Woody Allen
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We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

quote by Mother Teresa
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Villanelle: Blest Art the Poor

God keeps me better than many others!
And yet, I seem very dissatisfied;
I envy my poorer sisters, brothers!

Despite their troubles, nothing them bothers;
They seem to wear a smile on sad a face;
God keeps me better than many others!

Neither the sun or moon or rain or cold matters;
They laugh away their problems most, always.
I envy my poorer sisters, brothers!

Some shelterless do wear clothes in tatters;
Their children play amusing all in ways.
God keeps me better than many others!

They bathe happily in river-waters;
They play in mud and run in sand a race.
I envy my poorer sisters, brothers!

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poem by John Celes
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The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

quote by Alan Watts
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The Human Will Never Ceases To Surprise

'Tis hard to keep a good woman or man down
Even the one born on the poorest side of the town
Above the most dire poverty has been known to rise
The human will never ceases to surprise
You've heard about the female billionaire
By circumstance of birth she was not treated fair
A poor child of the poor side of the town
Like 'tis said 'tis hard to keep a good one down
Suppose it is in our life's destiny
That even from the depths of poverty
That one will rise and scale the heights of fame
And the once poor one becomes a celebrated name
Though to rise above poverty one does need
Great self belief as well as the will to succeed.

poem by Francis Duggan
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Sympathies dry

Poverty is not mother of grief.
The mother is disparity.
Prosperity cannot drive out grief.
Prosperity eliminates poverty.
With poverty elopes sympathy.
Suicides grow not from poverty
But from want of sympathy.
10.09.2006

poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Nouveau Riche

I’d rather be a nouveau riche
than some impoverished veteran.
I’m looking for a nouveau niche
that’s hopefully a better ’un
than that which I now occupy,
without resources that the rich
have, whether old or nouveau––I
don’t really think it matters which.
Too long I’ve been a nouveau poor.
It isn’t fun, you don’t get used
to poverty, the only cure
that gives my poverty a boost
is taking out new credit cards
that have a pleasing plastic glow,
ignoring all the crass canards
I hear from those to whom I owe
a fortune. They must know I won’t
repay them––can’t when nouveau poor!
Repayment cannot be my wont
till I have nouveau riche allure

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poem by Gershon Hepner
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a corrupt nation
cannot deliver the goods
to its poorest citizens

senryu by John Celes
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The field should be poorer than the farmer.

Latin proverbs
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The fellow that has no money is poor. The fellow that has nothing but money is poorer still.

quote by Billy Sunday
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The poverty program was not designed to eliminate poverty.

quote by H. Rap Brown
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The Impact Of Poverty On Education

THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION

There are so many different tools that have been thought relevant in people’s developmental projects both at individual and societal levels. Education is one of such practical tools. Importantly to note, there are also various meanings that denote the broad term ‘education’. In this essay, however, we are mainly interested in defining formal education since our discussion will dwell much on it. According to Nwomonoh (1998) , formal education is the process of gaining knowledge, attitudes, information and skills during the course of life especially at school.

Though education is said to be so instrumental in human development but also in the revamping of world economies, it is very unfortunate that education systems, world wide, are being held to ransom all because of poverty at both governmental and household levels. According to Thibault (2009) , poverty means the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include lack of access to opportunities like education and employment which aid the escape of poverty.

Problems in our society are interconnected in one way or the other, just like poverty and personal family problems affect a student’s capability to learn. Improving education entails improving the living conditions of students. Having in mind that education is basically responsible for the development of many countries including Malawi, as the back ground suggests, we cannot afford to bypass such a vital element without a mention. Considering also the fact that poverty is one of the forces that come in the way; blocking the success of education, we feel it rational to look at how the two realities, education and poverty, affect each other both positively and negatively. That is also why we are convinced that this topic is worth studying. Our awareness of this source, poverty, and its impact on education will enable us devise some proper measures of intervention with the hope of minimizing the negative impact of poverty on education. This point, in short, explains the purpose of our investigation and why we are so passionate in getting into this research. During the whole discussion we are being guided by two questions thus, ‘does poverty really affect education? And if it does, what points do we have on the positive and negative impacts of poverty on education? ’

METHODOLOGY

The study was basically qualitative in approach because of the nature of the issue that was being addressed. This was the case because the issue of how poverty affects education, both positively and negatively is particularly very difficult to predict the conclusions without penetrating into the core of the issue. For instance, one may unreasonably rush into concluding that poverty affects education negatively only and we cannot even dare to speak of poverty affecting education positively. The study was conducted in three schools namely; Mulunguzi, Masongola and Chirunga Private Secondary schools in Zomba district between 24th April and 3rd May. In this research we used both government and private funded schools to have a more balanced result on how poverty affects formal education in these different institutions. The information required for the study was collected through group interviews of form three students and individual interviews with teachers using semi-structured interview schedules. We opted to use these interviews in the first place because we felt books are more theoretical whereas a field research is practical and it involves real life experiences. Nevertheless, we still used desk research as a supplementary source of information and for clarity in some areas.

RESULTS

Positive impacts of poverty on education
To begin with, poverty encourages one to get educated and of course work hard in class. This is because the problems faced due to poverty are very serious and therefore students who are from poverty stricken families strive to end the problems and one of the best solutions is through education. That is to say, if a person, for instance, due to poverty, is taking just a meal in a day instead of three meals, and again if he/she is sometimes sleeping on an empty stomach, he/she will resort to education bearing in mind that if he/she gets educated they will secure formal employment and eventually be able to make ends meet for themselves as well as fending for their families.

Not only does poverty encourage one to get educated, but also it helped in the introduction of free primary education. In Malawi, for instance, when Bakili Muluzi became president, he introduced free primary education and he had eliminated the requirements for school uniform forthwith (Kadzamira & Rose,2001) . This had increased the access to education dramatically as those pupils who were coming from less privileged families were also given access to this free primary education. It should also be noted that the free primary education system was not only implemented to fulfill an electoral pledge but also bearing in mind that some families were not able to send their children to school due to poverty. Free primary education was there to deal with illiteracy by reducing families’ direct costs of education. Again due to the influx in the number of pupils in primary schools; there was a lack of teachers. Sonani (2002) , testifies that the Ministry of Education re-employed all retired teachers below the age of 65. This also meant that the once retired teachers got back to their source of income which helped them support their families as well as hauling the economy of the country. The implementation of free primary education system in Malawi forced the government to provide infrastructures so as to accommodate the large number of pupils in these schools. Simply put, poverty had led to the introduction of free primary education which means that more children are going to school, and again more teachers are being trained and getting employed and finally the construction of school blocks culminating into infrastructural development, all these branching from poverty.

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poem by Innocent Masina Nkhonyo
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The poorer you are, the more devils you meet.

Chinese proverbs
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Poverty

To get a card of
Below poverty line
I have to spot a person
Who has a link with Maoists.

Some says the head of the
Government of the state
Is the leader of maoists
Catchhold him seriously.

Who is poor and
How far in poverty
I am not here to
Measured or explain or
Eradicate poverty.

Without poverty the
Functioning of the
Government is difficult
As you know.

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poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.

quote by Michel de Montaigne
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Some Say 'I'd Rather Be Dead Than Poor

SOME SAY 'I'D RATHER BE DEAD THAN POOR ''

Some Say 'I'd rather be dead than poor'
Others, 'Poor than dead',
I am in the meantime working on and being worked on
for both-
The day will come
although it will be regrettably much longer than a day
when I shall have small pleasure in them-

Poorer and poorer
weaker and weaker
I grow older and older

How long I do not know
How much my meek efforts will delay it
if at all-
I do not know-

I do not know

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poem by Shalom Freedman
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The Poor

God is with the poor

But do the poor know God is with them?

As they look out from the crowd

Lost in their 'man made prison'

God is with the poor

But do the poor know God is with them?

As they look up to the proud

Who looks back with derision

And who can tell the poor that God is with them?

He who paints angel wings on ragged backs?

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poem by Yvette Smith
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