Bring our girls back to school
This week is the 23rd birthday of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, and she uses the occasion to promote the fight for girls’ right to education. Education for girls have made considerable progress in the world since Malala received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, with more than two-thirds of the countries having reached gender parity in primary education. Now, the Corona virus, that have led to school closures in almost 90 % of the world’s countries, is likely to bring a setback to this progress.
Malala Fund, established by the young laureate and her father, recently published a report estimating that 10 million more girls could be out of school after the pandemic.
"In a crisis like COVID-19, girls and young women are the first to be removed from school and the last to return,"
"But educated young women are also critical to public health and economic recovery. Malala Fund is calling on governments to start planning now to ensure all girls are able to return to school when the crisis has passed.”
Malala fund used data from the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when schools in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia shut for several months. After the closure, girls were less likely than boys to enroll in schools after they re-opened. In Liberia, the number of girls out of primary school almost tripled after the crisis.
In order to mitigate a setback in girls’ education, the fund calls on all government to factor in gender when planning for reopening schools and to make sure that education systems have adequate financing in the post-crisis months and years.
Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate ever, when she received the prestigious prize together with Kailash Satyarthi in 2014. In June, Malala graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Philosphy, Politics and Economics. The Nobel Peace Center congratulates Malala on her birthday 12 July and supports her fight for girls’ right to education.
Every Friday at noon, the Nobel Peace Center will release a peace dove together with “The good news of the week.”The dove is released from a window at the Nobel Peace Center, situated on the City Hall Square. As the dove crosses the square, the John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance will play from the bell towers.
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