Malala Yousafzai: We can finally give the world's poorest children the education they deserve
I hope the world's leaders will pledge to support the Global Partnership for Education on Thursday. So many children's futures depend on it
This Thursday in Brussels, leaders from around the world will decide how much they will pledge to support the Global Partnership for Education.
...
Education is the best weapon we have to fight poverty, ignorance and terrorism. But today, 57 million children around the world do not go to school at all. Another 250 million children drop out or do not learn basic reading or maths by the time they reach grade four. We are failing these children. I think if we are all honest, we know we can do better.
I have been shocked to learn that, since 2010, aid for education is actually getting smaller. This makes no sense to me. We need to increase education budgets. In many countries, they do not even keep track of how girls are doing in school, or if they are there at all. If we say girls count, then we must count girls, so we can see if we are really making progress in educating every girl.
This Thursday, donor and developing countries will make pledges to fund education in 66 developing countries for the next four years, through to 2018. I hope to be in university by then, but I think about all the other girls who may still be waiting for even their first day of school if we don't act.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/24/worlds-poorest-children-education-global-partnership