Access to education for girls around the world is a key step to eradicate poverty.
Access to education for girls around the world is a key step to eradicate poverty (World Bank 2017). How?
Increased wages: Women who have been able to complete their secondary school education on average earn twice as much as women with no schooling. Each extra year of secondary school education can increase a girl’s lifetime earnings by 15 to 25 percent (Global Citizen, 2015).
Community support: An educated woman invests nearly all of her income – an average of 90% - into her family and community, compared to 30% invested by an educated man (Phil Borges, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World, 2007). With an education, it also means that a woman is more likely to be able to take on leadership roles in her local and wider community.
Economic growth: If a girl is educated, when she grows up this isn’t only beneficial to herself, but also to her community and the country she lives in. It has been estimated that some countries lose over $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys. If every child completed their secondary school education, by 2030 per capita income would increase by 75% in 20 years (UNESCO, 2016).
Health: If all girls received their full schooling, child deaths under 5 would fall by 49% (UNESCO, 2016). Educated mothers have fewer pregnancies leading to a smaller global population and are more informed on preventing diseases. They are also more likely to send their children to school, helping break the cycle of poverty - especially generational poverty.
Education is a proved driver of reducing poverty as well as increasing life choices; so we all need to ensure that girls who make up around 50% of the population are able to access and benefit from a full education – a vital step towards the goal of eradicating world poverty
