Here’s Why Every Pakistani Needs To Advocate For Girls’ Education In Pakistan!

If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation!

This is not some rocket science! We all know that in the success and prosperity of a country, education plays a vital role! If we look at history, we learn that most of the nations that did well for themselves did so by making EDUCATION their national priority.

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So, in a country where almost half of the population is female, educating girls should be imperative to ensure better days in the future.

However, education, especially of girls’, continues to be a neglected agenda in Pakistan as 22.5 million of its children remain out of school; the majority of which are girls!

Educating girls for the sake of it should be reason enough to advocate for this cause.

That said, every time someone talks about sending girls to schools in post-colonial states, there’s an added pressure to associate other benefits with the action. Therefore, here I am with reasons why girls’ education is necessary for the development of Pakistan.

High Infant Mortality Rate…

According to a 2018 UNICEF Report, Pakistan is still one of the high infant mortality countries with 1 in every 22 babies born dying within a month.

This can be addressed only through the provision of better health care system, hygienic environment and most importantly, educated mothers.

Women who’re aware of safer ways to lead a life, raise healthier children which in result leads to declining infant mortality rate.

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The Investment That We Need…

Do you know that if every girl received 12 years of free, safe and quality education, the world would be up to $30 trillion better off? Educating girls is the best investment we can make in Pakistan to help the crippling economy.

To Shape A Less Discriminatory Society…

Nations that promote women education are also considered to be less discriminatory towards their gender as compared to the nations where women education is less prevalent.

Thus, in order to put an end to the injustices and crimes in our society against women like honor killing, rape, acid attacks, and human trafficking, Pakistan needs to send every little girl to school.

What Needs To Be Done?

In order to ensure at least 12 years of education for every girl in Pakistan, we need to request the government to:

• Make a Girls Education Taskforce to address the low rate of girls’ enrollment in schools
• Enhance the ambit of Article 25-A to ensure 12 years of free & quality education for our children

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Parents should also be approached in communities with lower literacy rates and be urged to send their girls to schools along with inquiring their reason behind the reluctance because as the quote below says, we cannot create a progressive society unless we equip our girls with education.

You can draw bumps, send in troops, build roads, put in electricity, but unless the girls are not educated, our society will not change.

Greg Mortenson