Education is foundational to human development and has a clear multiplier effect with benefits in health, broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction.
- A child born to an educated mother is more than 2x as likely to survive to age five.
- Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children than mothers without an education.
- Every extra year of school increases productivity by 10-30%
- A girl who completes basic education is 3x less likely to contract HIV/AIDS
- Educated women re-invest 90% of their income in their family. Men invest 30-40%
But still today:
- 1 in 4 women around the world cannot read this sentence
- Girls make up 53% of the children out of school
- 98% of people who can't read live in developing countries.
Sources: The Global Campaign for Education and RESULTS Educational Fund, Make It Right, Ending the Crisis in Girls' Education 2007 | Literacy Matters Fact Sheet | Van der Graag and Tan, The Benefits of Early Childhood Education Programs: An Economic Analysis, World Bank (1998) | The Global Campaign for Education and RESULTS Educational Fund, Make It Right, Ending the Crisis in Girls' Education 2007 | Sperling, Gene and Barbara Herz, What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World, Council on Foreign Relations (2004) | The Global Campaign for Education and RESULTS Educational Fund, Make It Right, Ending the Crisis in Girls' Education 2007 | UNESCO. Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. France: UNESCO Publishing, 43.
