10 Hard Facts about Girls' Education

An educated girl can empower herself, lift her family, help her community, change her country.1 - There are 32 million fewer girls than boys in primary school.Education First: An Initiative of the United Nations Secretary General, 2012.
A girl with an extra year of education can earn 20% more as an adult.The World Bank, 2011.
2 - 65 million girls are out of school globally. EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
An educated mother is more than twice as likely to send her children to school.UNICEF, 2010.
3 –  There are still 31 million girls of primary school age out of school. EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
10% fewer girls under the age of 17 would become pregnant in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia if they had a primary education.EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
4 –  There are 34 million female adolescents out of school globally. EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
If India enrolled 1% more girls in secondary school, its GDP would rise by $5.5 billion.CIA World Factbook,Global Campaign for Education, and RESULTS Education Fund.
5 –  14 million girls under 18 will be married this year. That’s 38 thousand today – or 13 girls in the last 30 seconds. UNFPA, 2012
Girls with secondary education are 6 times less likely to be married as children.International Center for Research on Women, 2006.
If all girls had a secondary education, there would be two-thirds fewer child marriages.EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
6 –  In a single year, an estimated 150 million girls were victims of sexual violence. UNIFEM, 2011.
7 –  And 50 % of sexual assaults in the world victimize girls under the age of 15. UNFPA, 2005.
Education empowers women to overcome discrimination. Girls and young women who are educated have greater awareness of their rights, and greater confidence and freedom to make decisions that affect their lives, improve their health, and boost their work prospects.Education First: An Initiative of the United Nations Secretary General, 2012.
8 –  In developing countries, the #1 cause of death for girls 15-19 is childbirth. World Health Organization, 2012
Child deaths would be cut in half if all women had a secondary education, saving 3 million lives. And all maternal deaths would be reduced by two-thirds if each mother completed primary education.EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.
9 –  Two-thirds of the 792 million illiterate adults in the world are female. EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012
A literate mother has a 50% higher chance that her child will survive past the age of 5.UNESCO, 2011.
10 –  There are 9.9 million girls out of school in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Ethiopia. World Bank Education Statistics, 2012.
By attaining a secondary education, a Pakistani woman can earn 70 percent what men earn, as opposed to only 51 percent with a primary education.EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2012.

--Via OSU

When a girl is  drops out of school, it isn’t just her who loses out on a future of upward mobility and better life conditions. The nation as a whole suffers. The education and empowerment of girls is a collective responsibility in a country like ours.

En-Light a Girl Child is helping more girls finish school and avoid early marriage and childbearing through awareness and empowerment programs geared towards creating positive discrimination for girl students in India. Take a look at our Rajasthan Project Report Album on our Facebook page to see just how:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1480918488804316.1073741833.1381856832043816&type=3

YOU can also help girls acquire the education they need to achieve their dreams through small interventions and acts of everyday heroism by changing the attitude of your community toward girls’ education, marriage and childbearing. Share your ideas with us using the hashtag #enlightagirlchild ! We are curating tweets, Facebook and Tumblr posts, Instagram images, and more!

Support En-Light a Girl Child by spreading the word. Visit us at http://www.enlightagirlchild.com/

Visit our Facebook Page at  https://www.facebook.com/enlightgirlchild to learn more about our hashtag campaign!