WHEN I was a girl, there was one day at school that changed my life forever.

I was seven years old and my friends and I were having a running race on the school playing field. When the teacher saw how quickly I could run, she called me over and said: “Helen, we’d better buy a stopwatch, and we’ll start training you for the Olympics.”

She actually bought the watch. And I actually believed her.

Although, sadly, I didn’t make it to the Olympics, the belief that my teacher showed in me had a huge impact on my self-confidence and self-esteem, motivating me not just in my sports but in my academic work too.

A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live beyond the age of 5 years, twice as likely to attend school themselves – and 50% more likely to be immunised. 

Helen Grant, special envoy for girls’ education

That experience has always stayed with me. It reminds me that while school is for learning, it’s also about inspiration, teamwork and friendship, developing all those skills that allow young people to go on in life, get jobs, and reach their potential.

Educating girls, everywhere, is one of the smartest investments we can make to lift communities out of poverty, end the scourge of gender-based violence and build back better from coronavirus. It can change the fortunes of not just individual women and girls, but communities and nations. And that is a proposition I would wish everyone to have in mind as we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 and beyond.

‘Investing in girls’ education is a game changer’

Tragically, there are millions of girls around the world who will never go to school. Even before coronavirus, the world was facing a learning crisis and now the pandemic has become one of the biggest educational disruptors in our history, with 1.6 billion young people out of education at its peak in 2020.

Out-of-school girls are at greater risk of violence, sexual abuse, child marriage and human trafficking.

Helen Grant

Investing in girls’ education is a game changer. A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live beyond the age of 5 years, twice as likely to attend school themselves – and 50% more likely to be immunised. 

Girls’ education is vital for women and girls who account for 51% of the global population, but also in levelling-up society and developing economies and nations.

Out-of-school girls are at greater risk of violence, sexual abuse, child marriage and human trafficking. All of this is creating a real risk of a lost generation of girls.

Every girl should spend at least 12 years in school

To avert this tragedy, the international community must act now.

I am hugely honoured to be the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education. I will champion the importance of providing every girl around the world with 12 years of quality education – that is key to tackling so many global challenges we face today, such as poverty, climate change and inequality.

Our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put girls’ education at the heart of our G7 presidency, allowing the transformative power of girls’ education to get the profile it deserves, as well as a much-needed focus on financial and political commitments.

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has agreed global targets, which include getting 40 million more girls into primary and secondary schools across African countries and beyond, and a third more reading by the age of 10, by 2025.

And this year, the UK, alongside Kenya, is leading the way to co-host the Financing Summit for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in the UK in July 2021, to urge world leaders to invest in getting children into school and learning again.

While the goal is ambitious, I believe that together we can make this happen. Let us mark International Women’s Day 2021 as a milestone in this campaign.  Let us challenge and lobby our leaders everywhere, to speak out, as our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has done, on the importance of providing 12 years of quality education for every girl around the world.