The importance of educating girls

Since it March 8 is International Women’s Day consider this:

• Worldwide for every 100 boys out-of-school there are 122 girls. The World Bank
• Girls still constitute 55% of the 75 million out-of-school children globally in 2006. The World Bank
• A girl growing up in Chad today has nearly the same chance of dying in childbirth as she has of attending secondary school.
• 2/3 of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults are women. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2005
• It is estimated that women constitute only slightly more than one-quarter of the world’s researchers. UNESCO
• Women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than one percent of property worldwide. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Women hold only 14% of the world’s parliamentary seats. Unifem

Yet according to the World Bank:

• Women with formal education tend are less likely to become pregnant at a very young age, tend to have fewer, better-spaced pregnancies, and seek pre- and post-natal care.
• It is estimated that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths.
• The infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished when their mothers have some form of formal education.
• Education is the most effective tool in reducing rates of HIV infection in girls.
• Each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for an additional one-third to one-half year.

That is why we need to keep educating our girls.

“Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls” – Kofi Annan