English

The Effect of Poverty on Education

Name of Candidate: Abigail Mcgonigle

Candidate number:1000220211

Name of school / Centre number: Convent of Mercy Academy ‘Alpha’

Region: Kingston, Jamaica

Name of Teacher: Miss. Gollab

 Table of contents

Title Pages

Plan of Investigation....................................................................................……..2

Reflection 1..........................................................................................................3

Reflection 2 .........................................................................................................4

Reflection 3..........................................................................................................5

Group Report.......................................................................................................6-7

Oral presentation..................................................................................................8-9

Appendices............................................................................................................10

References............................................................................................................11
 Plan of Investigation

My name is Abigail McGonigle, my group’s theme is poverty and my topic is The effect of

Poverty on education. The reason why I chose this theme is there are a lot of students who go to

school and have nothing to eat and it affects their grades and they will also worry about where

their next meal will be. They are also unable to afford school resources.

The data I will choose to help me in this project is a song, study, and an article, that will be

sourced from YouTube, Google, and a storybook. I will also be improving my reading, writing,

and listening skills in completing the components of my SBA.

 Reflection #1

In my Reflection, I will be talking about my three artifacts., the first thing I will be speaking

about is the song- The student poverty song. This song was written by IGA, this song was

uploaded on youtube on February 11, 2011. I learned that poverty is not a normal thing and there

are a lot of students in college that have to sell their books to eat something, In class, they have

to worry about their next meal and their work that doesn’t pay them enough money,

Secondly, I will be talking about a study, the study is about the impact of poverty on education.

This study was uploaded on google on May 21, 2009. It was written by Innocent Masina

Nkhonyo. This study explains how poverty impacts education. Poverty causes personal family

problems and affects student’s capability to learn. I absolutely agree as I have witnessed these

effects myself.

Lastly, I will be talking about an article about poverty written by Eric Jensen. This article

explains different risk factors of poverty like emotional, and social challenges, negative effects

on school behaviour, and performance, etc. Each artefact teaches me more about what poverty is

like and the deleterious effects on education.

 Reflection #2

My first source "The Student Poverty song" is non-formal. This source was presented by the

YouTuber HannahDahn. The song itself was very repetitive, however, the relationship between

the video and the lyrics made it clear and easy to comprehend for me, as I now understand the

difficulties faced by poor students. The singer uses a hyperbolic phrase of him living on ‘pickles

and dimes’ and a simile where he compares himself to being treated like a ‘crook’ to highlight

his miserable life and how people treat him because he is poor.

For my second source "Risk Factors of Poverty" an article from "Teaching With Poverty In

Mind" by Eric Jensen, the writer uses several techniques associated with exposition. These

include references to experts or other research ‘Recent evidence (Harris, 2006) suggests that the

complex web of social relationships students experience…’ and statistics e.g. One study found

that only 36 percent of low-income parents were involved in three or more school activities’. The

writer also uses bold words and subheadings to make the material easier for the reader to

navigate. ‘ This article was very well written and I could feel that the author made it as simple as

possible for the readers to understand.

Finally the study by Masina is also expository as it explores the effects of poverty on education.

This writer also uses statistics and references to authority, ‘For instance, with funding from the

“United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) ,3,300 needy Malawian

primary school girls are being funded. They are being provided with food, clothing, school

supplies and hygienic products like soap and body lotion (Muhaliwa,2005)’. The tone is

somewhat conversational though it is an informative piece.

 Reflection #3

I was happy about my SBA because I wanted to know more about kids that are poor and don’t

get much in life. I haven't faced many challenges in my sba, my SBA was manageable. My

reading, writing and listening skills have improved because of my research online and having to

sift through information. I also learned how to communicate more appropriately with group

members though we had challenges at times.

I have improved a lot to know more about my topic and more about people who are struggling

in life. The more and more I read about this theme it makes me want to help and support people

in need more. Each artifact teaches me more and more about poverty and it makes me more and

more sorry that persons can go through that in life, it's not right for someone to go through that in

life, when I grow up I want to help people as much as possible in life to let most people have the

opportunity in life.
 Group Report

As a group we sat and wondered what an issue that is affecting people locally is. Then we came

up with the theme poverty as it is a common issue that affects Jamaicans. The following topics

are as follows: The effects of poverty on families, the causes of poverty, the effect of poverty on

education, poverty and health and measures that can be implemented to help reduce the

increasing rate of poverty. We collected most of our information from the internet. The artefacts

were very informative. From time to time we met as a group to discuss the information we

collected. Working together as a group isn’t the best but it teaches us how to communicate with

others. Challenges we faced as a group were that we lacked communication skills and team work

sometimes.

The three artefacts that best depict our topic are a poem named “Poverty” by Caroline Johnson, a

song named “Poverty” by I-Octane and an essay called “The effect of poverty on health”. The

essay basically states that some people describe poverty as a lack of necessary materials such as

food, water, clothing and shelter. If people have no access to these items they are living in

poverty. Many factors tie into the relationship between poverty and one’s health; this includes

poor diet, poor living conditions and limited medical access. The diet of the less fortunate most

likely includes unhealthy foods that usually contain high levels of fat. They may also not be able

to get clean water so they will most likely suffer from illnesses. Dismal living conditions and

lack of immunization add to the development of infection among the poor.

In the poem the writer is basically saying that though there are negatives, sometimes being poor

is a blessing because it humbles you while being rich will make you ignorant and unappreciative.

The song speaks about how the pressure of poverty can bring about many hardships and force

people to turn to illegal activities such as gun violence and illegal drug trafficking in order to

provide for their families and in return the results only affect the family more . These three

artefacts concisely capture the ill effects of poverty and how far reaching it is.
 Oral Presentation

My Name is Abigail McGonigle, My Theme is ‘Poverty’ And my topic Is ‘effect of poverty

on Education’. The genre I will be using is Jamaica Standard English.

The speech I will be doing will determine children in the modern world that are facing poverty

and how it affects and helps with their education, also the reason why I chose ‘speech’ is that I

will also be dropping my opinion into one and two-sentence.

Firstly, Does poverty affect children’s education? Yes! It does children that are raised in

poverty are much less likely to have critical social skills, while children from the upper class are

enrolled in school, students from poverty background are more likely to drop out of school,

Poverty reduces a child’s ability to concentrate and lack of remembering information, reduces a

child Attendance to school, coarsely and motivation. Education directly correlates with many

including reduced infant and death’s of many students, especially in the inner city that has little

or no support and also left with a chance to succeed in their education. In 1934 Abraham Maslow

developed a hierarchy of needs, which stated that students cannot be expected to function at a

high academic level when their basic needs for food, shelter, medical care, safety family, many

students who attend school daily without having breakfast will throw off their learning and

having a bright future.

Secondly, does poverty help students? Yes, it does Not all children are affected by poverty

most of those children use poverty as a guide, For example, Usain Bolt with the title of ‘The

fastest man in the world’ was very poor, it was only after he implemented his coach’s advice of

eating beef, he started winning medals at the biggest sporting spectacle as you can see many of

our famous people in the modern world didn’t grow up into a big house or and big car NO!. They
had to struggle like everyone else and grow their education and future. You can let your past be

your downgrade or you can learn from it and let it be your guide into the right way if you just

push yourself to the limit. Poverty shouldn’t be an excuse to children because anywhere they go

if they ask for help they will receive it. This is the end of my presentation also, to sum up,

everything that has been stated so far poverty does affect but it also helps children and their

education to do great in the future thank you for listening.

 References

● Jensen Eric, (2009).Teaching with poverty in mind.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior

-and-Academic-Performance.aspx

● IGA, (2011). The students' poverty song.

https://youtu.be/Cr2LiQGrC7A

● Nkhonyo Innocent Masina (2009). The Impact Of Poverty On Education.

Appendices