Education

THE announcement today by the United Nations and the Pakistan government of a ‘Malala Fund’ to educate underprivileged girls has been welcomed by child rights organisation Plan International.

The UN secured a pledge from Pakistan for the fund to support every girl’s right to attend school. The promise comes on UN Human Rights Day and in the wake of the attempted assassination of teenage schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai by extremists. She is still recovering in a UK hospital from the shooting.

Pakistan also agreed to contribute $10 million to the fund during a conference held in Paris, entitled “Stand Up for Malala, Stand Up for Girls Education”.

Plan which launched its Because I Am A Girl global campaign on girls’ education on the inaugural International Day of the Girl, just two days after the shooting, has welcomed the increased commitment. But it says it is calling upon Pakistan, along with all other governments to spend at least 11.4% of their GDP on education*.

“The attack upon Malala is an extreme example of the violation of rights and threats which girls around the world face each and every day in their fight simply to get to and from school,” said Plan International CEO Nigel Chapman.

“It is indefensible that globally so many girls are still denied the right to education and that an individual be so brutally attacked for standing up to say so. So this pledge is encouraging but we would like to see greater financial commitment from nations.”

Director of Plan in Pakistan, Rashid Javed said: “Our work has shown that supporting girls’ education is one of the single best investments we can make to help them escape the cycle of poverty. We are greatly encouraged that the government has today pledged to stand up with others to ensure girls take their rightful place with boys in the classroom. However, we now need the political will from the Pakistan government to ensure much more of GDP is committed to education for all.”

According to latest UNESCO figures, girls are the majority of the 61 million children globally that are out of school at the primary level alone.

Although school enrolment in Pakistan has increased by over 3 million since 1999, more than 5 million children are still without an education; more than 3 million of them are girls. Two-thirds of the 49.5 million illiterate Pakistani adults are women.

Pakistan also lags behind other South Asian countries in its education, at 2.8 per cent of its gross national product (GNP), Pakistan’s expenditure on education is the second lowest in South Asia after Bangladesh at 2.4%.

Plan is therefore calling upon the Pakistan government to:

• Conduct an urgent gender review of its education
• Increase the allocation of resources to education and, within that, enhance share of budget allocated to girls’ education and quality aspects of education.
• Responding to poverty levels in the country and increased inflation, by providing parents with incentives for girls’ education.
• Amend the Child Marriages Restraint Act to raise the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years.
  *Average partner country match funding for pre-primary, primary and secondary education.
  *Plan is also backing the UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown’s petition for education for all children in Pakistan. Mr Brown will be meeting with youth representatives at Plan’s UK offices, London tomorrow (December 11th) to discuss the campaign. Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai, a former teacher and headmaster was today appointed by Mr Brown as a UN Special advisor on global education.
  For more details on this opportunity, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in the Plan UK Press Office. 0203 217 0233.
• Plan has been working in Pakistan since 1997 and has been involved with education sector since then.
• Founded 75 years ago, Plan is one of the world’s oldest and largest child-centred community development organisations operating in 68 countries worldwide. In 2011, Plan worked with 58,000 communities and reached over 56 million children.
• Because I am a Girl is Plan's campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty.
• Since 2007 Plan has been producing a global report on the State of World’s Girls with a different theme each year.