The Right to Read

The United States has laws for mandatory schooling until a child is 16 years old. After then a student can choose to drop out of school, but if not there are still public schools that they can attend for free for a while longer depending on the state. A basic education is something taken for granted in the developed world. The majority of the world does not have these opportunities. Over a billion people in 1999 could not read a book or sign their own name. In many parts of the world the cost of education and school supplies are outside the means of a family living in poverty. In developing countries, adult literacy is as low as 32% of adults in some areas . If a person is not able to read this miss out on many opportunities to help them move out of poverty.

Access to education is not equal. There is a gap between the education that girls and boys receive. Two-thirds of all illiterate people in the world are women. There are many reasons are given for not educating their daughters. In countries where it is difficult to send a child to school, boys are given the priority because women are expected to leave their birth families to join their husband’s family at marriage, but sons stay with their parents and care for them as they age. So, it is seen as more beneficial to the parents to educate their sons. Another reason girls are less likely to continue their education is because they are expected to help at home and to learn from their mothers how to run a household for when they are married. Since, they do the same work as their mothers, girls are seen as more profitable to have at home rather than school.

Though it is not a priority in many nations, there has been shown that education women is beneficial to not only her but to her family and community as well. A women with a higher level of education is less likely to be a child-bride and will have fewer children than women with less education. Not only did they have fewer children, but the ones they had were more likely to survive. A child born to a mother who has had at least a secondary level education is twice as likely to live to age 5 than to a child born to a mother with no education. Being educated opens economic opportunities outside of the home that wouldn’t have been available before. Having the ability to earn more money for themselves helps the family. Women are shown to allocate more money toward her family and their education and medication for the children than their husbands.

With such a plethora of reasons why the education of girls matter, it needs to be made a priority. Many nations still place it at a low concern, but these girls and women have the right to education. In recent years, there has been an increase of activism for women’s education, but there is still a long way to go. A young Pakistani woman and education activist, Malala Yousafzai  explained why everyone  should care about girl’s education, “The best way to empower girls is through education, so we should all speak up for girls’ education”.