07-03-2008

Poverty is more likely to persist in families with poorly educated parents, according to the second phase of a long term, international research project titled Young Lives.

The survey also found that households with better educated parents were more likely to be better off.

The study has been tracking about 3,000 children from 2002 in Ben Tre, Da Nang, Hung Yen, Lao Cai and Phu Yen.

The second phase has shown that poverty is becoming more concentrated among those with low education. It also reported constant high poverty among ethnic minorities.

In 2006, 66 per cent of families with maternal education below primary-school level were in the bottom 20 per cent, compared to only 47 per cent in 2002.

The study confirmed that stunted growth is also linked to low parental education and that it can persist across generations. It can also relate to ethnicity.

It revealed that learning is strongly associated with poverty and malnutrition in early childhood as well as the levels of parental education.

Relatively few older children drop out of school, and enrolment rates remain high for a low-income country. However, only 85 per cent of children from ethnic minorities are still in school by the age of 12.

These differences are mirrored in younger children. About 91 per cent of Kinh (the major Vietnamese group) children attended nursery school, but only 76 per cent of ethnic children. This places the ethnic children at a disadvantage when transferring to primary school.

Chief of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences’ Division for Economic Forecasting, Le Thuc Duc, agreed that stunting could be linked to low education of parents and ethnicity.

Almost 40 per cent of stunted children had parents educated to below primary level, while only two per cent had parents with university or higher education.

By age 12, 15 per cent of children whose parents had lower than primary education and 10 per cent of ethnic children had dropped out of school.

Director of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ Social Welfare Department, Nguyen Hai Huu, said the study showed it was necessary to have an overall view to help policy-makers make effective policies.

"I agree low parental education can help cause stunting, however, according to the second round of the Young Lives project, 70 per cent of growth depends on genes and the remainder on social and economic impacts," said Huu.

"We can not make comparisons between the Kinh group and ethnic minorities because each nationality has its own cultural characters, customs and lifestyle."

Huu said it was necessary to find the primary reason for stunting.

The policy co-ordinator from Save the Children UK, Nguyen Hoai Chau, said the study aimed to supply policy makers with facts. He called for co-ordination between relevant sectors to discuss and issue policies to reduce child poverty."

Young Lives is a long-term international research project investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty. Of them, 2,000 were born in 2001-02, and the remainder in 1994-95.

The studies provide insights into every phase of childhood. Researchers will follow the children for 15 years, from infancy to their mid-teens – and older children into adulthood.

Future rounds of data collection are planned for 2009, 2012 and 2015. As children enter the labour market, researchers can assess if the patterns are changing and evaluate policies to overcome the problems.

The study is being jointly carried out by the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, General Statistics Office, and the British Save the Children.