Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Why all girls should have 12 years in school

Joseph D'Urso
Breaking News Reporter, The Thomson Reuters Foundation

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who won a Nobel peace prize for education campaigning, called on world leaders on Thursday to give 12 years of free schooling to every child following a major education summit, saying this was critical for girls.

The World Education Forum, which ended in South Korea on Thursday, involved government ministers and non-government organisations from 160 countries to set education goals for the next 15 years to be embedded in a new set of global targets.

They agreed to ensure these goals, which will be finalised at the United Nations in September, state that countries should provide 12 years of publicly-funded primary and secondary education to all children, with nine years free and compulsory.

Malala, 17, who has become a leading education campaigner since surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012, urged world leaders to back these goals, saying 12 years of free education was critical, particularly for girls.

“Every day my sisters all over the world are fighting to take their place in the classroom,” Malala said in a statement.

“They want to be the best they can be and give back to their communities and the world. This means they must have the opportunity to receive 12 years of quality education.”

Malala and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, set up the Malala Fund in 2013 to fight on behalf of 62 million girls around the world denied access to secondary education, and work in Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

Malala, who now lives in Britain, was last year awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her education campaigning, jointly with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.

The U.N.s educational arm, UNESCO, this month said $22 billion was needed to achieve universal quality education for every child by 2030.

The education targets will become part of the Sustainable Development Goals to be finalised by the United Nations in September. These replace the Millennium Development Goals and mark a new era in the global fight against poverty.

This article is published in collaboration with The Thomson Reuters Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Joseph D’ Urso is an online production and breaking news reporter at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

Image: Girls stand inside their classroom at a primary school. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya. 

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Gender Inequality

Related topics:
Equity, Diversity and InclusionEducation and Skills
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Gender Inequality is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Closing the AI equity gap: Trust and safety for sustainable development

Keyzom Ngodup Massally and Jennifer Louie

December 3, 2024

How new taxi marketplaces are tackling old challenges

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum