Improving Education to Reduce Poverty

For our class we have been reading "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and I have realized that it goes very well with the social issues topic my group and I have been studying. Mr. Mortenson fell in love with a small village in Pakistan on the border of K2, the second biggest mountain in the world. He realized how badly they needed a school and took it upon himself to find the funds needed to build a school for the children of the village. Upon building a bridge and school for the village he realized almost all the other villages in the northern areas needed schools and so with the help of another climber they started an organization to help build schools.
While researching education in Pakistan I realized that schools are still in great need in the northern areas and also in other rural parts of Pakistan. Many children cannot go to school in the rural areas because there are not schools within walking distance or they have to stay at home to help their family in the fields so they will have enough food to eat for the winter. Because of the numerous amount of children and adults with little to no education it causes a high population of individuals who are illiterate. With so many people in the country not being able to read, write or perform basic mathematical skills it allows people who are literate to "take advantage" or sometimes tell them the wrong thing because they would not know the difference. This is especially a problem when electing new leaders or going to a market to buy goods. Illiterate people would not be able to read anything about politicians, but only know what others tell them or what they hear the politicians say.
Schools are very important to put throughout Pakistan because the more people who become literate, the more they will be able to understand and comprehend what is going on in the world and hopefully they would be able to improve the conditions in Pakistan to improve the standard of living. People in Pakistan live in very poor, impoverished conditions because so many of them are illiterate. If more schools could be built and students got an education, the next generation could help Pakistan thrive and become more industrialized to improve their standard of living.