Girls' Rights and Education in Pakistan

The cause:

Girls' Rights and Education

The facts:

• 67% of girls and 76% of boys regularly attend primarily school.
• Only 33% of girls attend secondary school compared to 39% of boys.
• Only 60% of girls ages 15 to 24 know how to read and write, compared to 80% of boys in the same age group.
• 16% of girls in Pakistan between ages 15 and 19 are married.

The project:

To improve school attendance and provide alternative education where needed, Plan supported a project to improve education in Pakistan.

The details:

The main goal of this project is getting girls who have dropped out, or who have never had the chance to attend school, into the classroom. Parents concerned about the safety of their children are often reluctant to send girls to school if the girls must travel far from home to attend. When there is no school available in the community, the only option is to send girls to a different town or keep them home.

Plan built new classrooms and improved existing ones, providing new furniture and school supplies. For girls who had been out of school for a while, Plan supported non-formal education programs to prepare them for regular schooling. Educational opportunities like these ones help girls to delay marriage until after they graduate.

Girls involved in the project did so well on their exams that the community recognized the value of keeping girls in school. With Plan's help, the community took over the management of the schools involved, ensuring that the impact of the project is long lasting.

The project also helped community members young and old. Children between ages 3 and 5 joined early childhood care programs to get them ready for primary school and illiterate community members, especially elderly women, were taught to read and write.

When Zahida's children started to go to school, she felt frustrated that she couldn