“ Educate a boy and you have created a wage earner; educate a girl and you have ensured the future generations will be educated.”
In the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, India, young rural girls seldom go to school past middle school. Villagers hesitate to send young girls approaching puberty to schools with co-education. With little or no infrastructure to provide regular transportation, they are confined to house chores and farm work and usually get married at an early age. More than 60% of girls in rural eastern Uttar Pradesh marry before the age of 18.
Consider the following facts:
1 - When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 199).
2. Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers (George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science and Medicine (May 1993).
3. An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent. (George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)
4. The majority of value systems in young children come from their mothers. Educating young girls virtually ensures that future generations will have the opportunity for education. The positive chain is established, and the payoff potential for humanity is astounding.
