Educational Interventions Fact Sheet

What is it?

Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program provides for a child’s primary education and tutoring. However, a lack of resources at the secondary level can stall the acceleration of otherwise high-potential students.

Through educational interventions, Compassion provides additional education and training opportunities that challenge and prepare students who demonstrate the ability to further advance their education and escape the poverty into which they were born.

Key Statistics

• About 263 million children and youth, ages 6 - 15, are out of school, according to the most recent UIS data. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of gender gaps and exclusivity, with 21 percent of primary school-aged children denied the right to an education.¹
• Girls still face the biggest barriers to education and school attendance. Fifteen million girls of primary school age will never have the opportunity to learn to read or write in school.¹
• The global number of out-of-school children of primary school age rose by 2.4 million between 2010 and 2013, ² with poverty being the single greatest factor that keeps children out of school.³
• Inequality persists even in the world’s developing countries, where the poorest children are four times less likely than the richest children to attend primary school. in the transition from primary to secondary school.⁴
• Worldwide literacy rates among youth and adults ages 15-24 have improved, rising from 83 to 91 percent between 1990 and 2013. However, today 122 million young people are still illiterate, of which women represent more than 60 percent.⁵
• UNESCO estimates that if all mothers completed a primary education, maternal deaths would be reduced by two-thirds, saving 98,000 lives; and if all women completed a secondary education, child deaths would be cut in half, saving three million lives.⁶

Our Strategy

Education plays a significant role in releasing a child from poverty. An educated child is equipped with the tools to fight poverty and conquer disease.

Compassion works with its partner churches to identify the needs that extend beyond our core ministries. For families who cannot afford these needs, Compassion’s educational interventions provide:

• Books, supplies and fees for tests and labs
• Postsecondary classes and/or vocational training
• Literacy and financial training for adult caregivers
• Non-formal education resources, such as playgrounds, libraries, computer labs and training
• Curriculum development for church partners
• Educational fees that exceed core provisions, including after-school tutoring and pre-university preparatory courses and entrance exams

¹ UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Out of School Children Policy Paper 27 / Fact Sheet 37, 2016
² UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Out of School Children Policy Paper 22 / Fact Sheet 31, 2015
³ UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All, 2015
⁴ World Bank, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking on Equality Report, 2016
⁵ UNESCO, Statistics on Literacy, 2017
⁶ UNESCO, Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Girls’ education - the facts, 2013