Poverty and ignorance is a very dangerous combination.
Education is generally seen as the foundation of society which
brings economic wealth, social prosperity and political
stability. This research helps to understand the long run
relation between poverty, education expenditure and education
status. The research has utilized the Johanson Cointegration
Test, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM),Wald Test and
Granger causality test to investigate the causal direction and
long run relationship between poverty, education expenditure
and education status in the country. With the help of
Percentage of population below national poverty line, Adult
Literacy rate over 15 years of age, Government expenditure on
education as a percentage of total expenditures and Total
School life Expectancy the authors concluded that there exists
a strong causal bi-directional relationship running between
poverty rate and education status in the region. The research
did not find a significant long run relationship existing between
poverty rate and education expenditure. The research
concluded that, increasing budgetary allocation to funding
education sector alone without reducing poverty level, would
not be sufficient to improve the education status of the country.
The researchers therefore suggest that policies should be made
to promote adult literacy level, reduce the poverty rate in the
region.