Despite recent progress on getting more girls’ in school and learning, a generation of young women has been left behind. Over 100 million young women living in developing countries are unable to read a single sentence.
If recent trends in Sub Saharan Africa continue, the richest boys will all be completing primary school by 2021, but the poorest girls will not catch up until 2086.[1]
Girls around the world are denied an education by the daily realities of poverty, conflict and discrimination. Every day, girls are taken out of school and forced into work, or married off to strangers where they risk isolation and abuse. Missing out on school can mark the end of a girl having any choice over her own future.
Yet at Plan we know that with education, skills and the right support girls hold the power to help break the cycle of poverty. Girls can make choices over their own future, and play a major role in lifting themselves, their communities and their countries out of poverty. An educated girl is...
- Less likely to marry and to have children whilst she is still a child.
- More likely to be literate, healthy and survive into adulthood, as are her children.
- More likely to reinvest her income back into her family, community and country.
This is why the Global Partnership for Education works to get more girls into school and help them get a good education. The GPE has already achieved so much - 72% of girls in GPE countries now finish primary school, compared to 56% in 2002.
The UK government’s support to the Global Partnership for Education will help to ensure that girls continue to enrol in school and achieve their potential. With support from the UK the GPE will increase the percentage of girls finishing primary school in partner countries from 74% in 2014 to 84% in 2018.
Take action: help ensure all girls get a good education by writing to the UK’s head of international development and asking the UK government to continue their global leadership and support to the GPE.
This content was brought to you by Plan UK