Educational targeting in the fight against poverty: Limits, omissions and opportunities

Educational targeting has become one of the hegemonic mechanisms in the fight against poverty. Both international organisms and developing countries support targeting as one of the best strategies in order to simultaneously guarantee poverty reduction and economic growth, and consequently to tackle the challenges generated by globalisation. The main objective of the article is to point out some of the limits, omissions and opportunities of educational targeting as a priority strategy to fight against poverty. In doing so, it analyses the World Bank’s proposals in education, poverty and targeting and it presents one of the targeting pioneering programmes implemented in Latin America: the Bolsa Escola programme (BE). An analysis of the impacts of the programme is also included. This analysis is based on the results of an intensive qualitiative fieldwork containing more than 80 interviews with mothers and students who benefit from the programme as well as with teaching staff. The analysis demonstrates that although targeting could be a necessary and useful strategy, it is not sufficient either for ensuring school attainment or for reducing poverty.