Poverty Named As Youth Risk Factor

from The Bahama Journal

By Tameka Lundy

Poverty continues to be one of the crucial factors that affects Bahamian youth making them vulnerable to risks that threaten their human capital development and increasing their chances of becoming poor adults, a newly released report has found.

The Situation Of Youth In The Bahamas, compiled by researcher Dr. Lorraine Blank at the Inter American Development Bank [IDB], was designed to update and integrate existing background information regarding the socio-economic situations affecting the youngest citizens of the country.

Poverty, low levels of academic achievement and poor labour market outcomes were classified among the interrelated factors that interfere with optimal youth development.

One in five persons between the ages of 15 and 24 is poor and over 7,200 youth are living in poverty, according to the latest statistics available. The report conceded that the burden of poverty is a difficult one for young people.

"Students from poor households are also at a disadvantage," it said. "Poor children do not do as well in primary school as their wealthier counterparts and are two times more likely to have repeated a primary school grade than the non-poor - 22 percent among the poor as compared to 11 percent for the non-poor."

It was also said that poor children drop out of school earlier than their wealthier counterparts.

In 2002, researchers determined that 9.3 percent of the population was living below the poverty line. Persons up to age 14 accounted for 50 percent of them.

Dr. Blank’s report contended that The Bahamas has made significant strides in the provision of primary education and universal enrollment, however there is evidence of school attrition among poor children by the time they are in late primary school. The gradual erosion of school enrollment by children who are not poor, according to the report, begins in the upper secondary school.

Among poor children enrolled in school there is also the issue of educational outcomes which are often disappointing. Based on Department of Statistics data thirty five percent of students who sat the Bahamas Junior Certification exam in 2003 scored below average in Mathematics. Thirty eight percent scored below average in English Language.

"Performance on the General Certificate of Secondary Education [BGCSE] which students sit at the end of grade 12 is also worrying," the report said indicating that in 2003, 59 percent of students scored below average in Mathematics and 74 percent scored below average in Language Arts.