Sociology

Biddle (2001) defines poverty as a state of lack of effective means to obtain basic needs such as food, shelter, basic health care, education, and clothing among others. It can be classified as absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is a situation where there is total lack of means available to access basic needs while relative poverty is a scenario where one lives under a certain threshold such as below a dollar a day (Biddle , 2001, p. 96). Poverty is aggravated by factors such as population explosions, corruption and inequitable distribution of resources. It is a point of worth to mention that, poverty is a serious social issue in the sense that its negative impact if felt in societal social aspects such as economic, culture and mostly education.
Education, one of the essential needs in life today encompasses instilling relevant knowledge, skills as well as capacity building and empowering individuals in societies to become better citizens and therefore contribute to the general growth of a countrys economy (Biddle, 2001). Despite its introduction as a solution to fighting poverty, the provision of education has faced immense drawbacks influenced by effects of poverty. According to Europa Publications (2004), The United Nations Environment, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) advocates for provision of education to all individuals as a mechanism to reducing poverty and inequalities in societies by increasing access at all levels with special reference to gender.
Facts about poverty and education
Access to water, fuel wood and food.
Effects of Poverty on self esteem.
Poverty, education and the girl child.
Access to education resources
Geographic disparities in access to education.

Access to water, fuel and food
Essential commodities such as water, fuel and food have affected in one way or another accessibility of individuals to education. This is widely evidenced in developing countries such as Asia, Africa and some parts of Europe where water scarcity is prone in most regions (Europa Publications, 2004). Students have to walk for a long distance to obtain water for domestic use which takes up a substantial amount of their school hours, therefore, affecting quality.
Effects of Poverty on self esteem
Poverty affects the self esteem of students due to social status difference in their classrooms, where individuals from poor families are unable to access quality educative materials and are therefore sidelined by their classmates resulting in isolation. A student from a poor social status feels left out as they cannot interact with those from well founded backgrounds. These lowers their interaction levels as well as their participation in class work, hence further affecting their overall performance. Biddle (2001) emphasizes that the occupation of the parent and family income affects the students outcome in school based activities.
Poverty, Education and the girl child
Poverty has played an active role in affecting the accessibility levels to education by the girl child. As Benedicta Egbo (2000) states, Structural Adjustment Programs introduced by the World Bank as a mechanism to counter poverty through free market economies, the girl child was affected in that there has been an overall reduction in per capita expenditure and enrollments which threatens girls education as well as the gains made in gender based development. Moreover, Egbo (2000) says that due to inadequate resources in poor families, the girl child in these families faces the brunt of lack of education as parents prefer to educate the male child mainly attributed to cultural biases.
Access to education resources
Education resources are an essential key to better education. Such resources include reading materials, teachers and facilities such as classrooms. Any inadequacy in accessing such resources therefore affects the quality of education in general. Poverty plays a big role in the inability to access quality educational resources. In the sense that, learners and educational institutional found within poor stratum in society may not be able to access quality and updated resources that require high amount of resources and skills such as online libraries like Questia and other journals. As a result, such individual remain to recycle old sources and materials that do not give new skills that are at per with society advancement. As Biddle (2001) reports, poor societies and individuals are unable to provide such facilities for their children hence compromising the quality of education as a whole.
Geographic disparities
Geographic regions affect the access to basic resources, education being one of them. Societies residing in marginal areas are worst hit as these resources do not trickle down to them due to their regional placement. It is far more affected by poor families that occupy these fragile lands such as polar, arid and semi arid areas. Students in these areas find it difficult to access education resources, even those available are quite expensive, and thus, they are inaccessible and compromise the quality of education (Europa Publications, 2004). 
Recommendations
    In order to minimize and finally eradicate poverty worldwide, education remains a key instrument. Therefore, the way forward I propose is by first, promoting gender equality in the provision of education to ensure both boy and girl child have equal opportunity to access education. However, various world cultures may prove impediment as their value for girl child may be distorted. Second, there should be a proper mechanism for enhancing equitable distribution of economic resources in low potential areas especially developing nations to curb education inequalities resulting from regional disparity, by adding level and amount of grants and donations. Though, there is a challenge in implementation of donor funds in most cases due to misappropriation and corruption.
Third, encouraging affirmative action to advocate for improved access to education by the girl child can play a critical role in this social issue. And lastly, is though encouraging community education where the community plays a fundamental role in the provision of education facilities and resources. In this way, the communities own and actively participate in provision of education to their population. Foe it to be successful, there is need to have attitude and behavior change that is education supportive.

In conclusion, education plays a very big role in the reduction of poverty in global population through both direct and indirect perceived benefits of education. However, a compromise in its quality is effected by poverty in terms of lack of basic housing, healthcare, clean and safe water, food that poor stratum faces. As a result, this interlocking aspect between poverty effects on education creates a vicious cycle. It is therefore essential to capture the above recommendations to ensure that education works towards eradicating poverty since poverty is global epidemic.