Malala urges world leaders to prioritise girls education

If we want to live in a more equal future, leaders must prioritise quality education, says Nobel laureate

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday urged world leaders to prioritise girls education to tackle some of the major issues facing the globe today.

“If we want to live in a more equal future, leaders must prioritise quality education,” Yousafzai wrote in a special edition of The Economist on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

“It prepares students to secure future jobs, think critically, solve problems and advocate for themselves,” the young ambassador for girls’ education noted, adding, “Educating young women can also help to prevent wars, mitigate the effects of climate change and make economies grow.”

She highlighted that nearly 130 million girls were currently out of school and feared that the world was moving further away from putting forth a solution.

Yousafzai further said issues such as pandemic, climate change and inequality had compounded the problems for girls, saying a sense of urgency for the same was missing.

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Pointing at the estimates of Malala Fund, she said girl dropouts since the pandemic could force almost 20 million females aged between 11 to 18 years out of school.

She termed funding the biggest barrier and said world community should work on reducing the debt on lower-income nations as that could help free up resources and enable them to invest more in education.

The Nobel laureate also asked world leaders to seek and embrace perspectives given by girls for their education.

This, she hoped, would help find newer ways of filling the gaps that leaders overlook and address the aspects that affect girls’ lives in general.

Yousafzai stressed working together for a safer, equal world. “So despite the odds, we are trying our best. Will you?” she asked as she concluded her piece.