A 10 to 20% increase in women’s wages is associated with each additional year of schooling.

Ethiopia: By applying an education sector plan with affirmative action towards girls, the country went from a girls’ enrollment rate in primary education of 40% in 1999 to 90% in 2008.

Children born to educated mothers are less likely to be stunted or malnourished. In fact, each additional year of maternal education helps reduce the child mortality rate by 2%.

Educated girls and women are less vulnerable to HIV infection, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation and more likely to marry later and have fewer children. An education can help decrease the spreading of infectious diseases.

While girls are less likely to be in school, boys are more likely to repeat grades or drop out altogether.

Illiteracy is highest amongst females. In more than 20 developing countries, illiteracy rates amongst women exceed 70%.

Overall, females have been the most affected with little or no access to educational opportunities which can be attributed to social, traditional and deep-rooted religious and cultural beliefs that are often the barriers they encounter and unable to overcome.

An example is the strong links between a woman ' s education and her employment and income. Another is that better-educated women bear fewer children, who have better chances of surviving infancy, of being healthy, and of attending school.

there is compelling evidence that the education of girls and women promotes both individual and national well-being

Despite the great expansion of educational opportunities worldwide during the past thirty years, women in most developing countries still receive less schooling than men.

Job prospects for most people in the developing world are poor, and staying in school past grade 5, or even through grade 10, does not improve them significantly.

In Ghana, for example, only 50 percent of children complete grade 5, and of those, less than half can comprehend a simple paragraph.

In most developing countries, few children graduate from secondary school and many don’t even finish primary school.

The report noted that enrolment ratios are not necessarily indicative of gender equality in a country’s schools as many factors weight in, such as providing girls with a safe learning environment.

Women make up two-thirds of illiterate adults around the world, a figure that has remained largely unchanged for over two decades.

The report found Afghanistan and Pakistan to be the countries with fewer girls in school: 71 girls for every 100 boys in the former and 82 girls for every 100 boys in the latter.

If current trends continue, the poorest part of the young female population in developing countries won’t achieve literacy until 2072

One out of four young people in poor countries - and one of three young women in South and West Asia - are unable to read all or even part of a sentence, according to a new report, which estimates 175 million youths in developing countries are illiterate.

The gender gaps in education vary greatly across countries in the region but are generally wider in countries where overall literacy and school enrollment are lower.

Educated women generally want smaller families and make better use of reproductive health

Education helps women take advantage of opportunities that could benefit them and their families, preparing women for the labor force and helping them understand their legal and reproductive rights.

Men in the MENA region are more likely to have direct access to wage employment and control over wealth, while women are largely economically dependent upon male family members.

MENA countries generally have lower levels of women's education and labor force participation than other regions with similar income levels.

In the increasingly open global economy, countries with high rates of illiteracy and gender gaps in educational attainment tend to be less competitive, because foreign investors seek labor that is skilled as well as inexpensive.

education is a key strategy for reducing poverty

Education contributes directly to the growth of national income by improving the productive capacities of the labor force.

In some countries, access to the secondary and higher education that helps create a skilled and knowledgeable labor force continues to be limited; even where access is not a problem, the quality of the education provided is often low. "

Many people — especially girls — are still excluded from education, and many more are enrolled in school but learning too little to prepare them for 21st-century job markets.

Selected Socioeconomic Indicators in the Middle East and North Africa

Education is a key part of strategies to improve individuals' well-being and societies' economic and social development.

An educated female population increases a country's productivity and fuels economic growth.

More educated women tend to be healthier, work and earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better health care and education to their children.

Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys.

There is vast evidence suggesting that countries with better gender equality and less gender disparity in primary and secondary education are more likely to have higher economic growth.

Without a real step change by the government to give these children and young people the education and training they need, including a second chance for those who have missed out, they will be denied equal opportunities in work and life forever.

Almost two-thirds of poorest girls in Pakistan have never been to school.

The long term neglect of education means that the poorest young women in the country have only spent around a year in school on average

But it’s not just about access. Compounding the problem is a lack of quality education. For example, in Malawi robust primary school enrollment and matriculation rates are reported. However, a closer inspection of the educational system reveals that many students finish their schooling without being able to read. Therefore, a focus on both the quality of education and enrollment rates is needed.

When girls are educated, their families are healthier, they have fewer children, they wed later, and they have more opportunities to generate income

Education is a silver bullet for empowering women and girls worldwide.

if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward.

The horrors that go on in the slaughter house are something the meat industry do not want you to know.

But new government data show schools in four more states have since put aside concerns and resumed buying the controversial product.

Kids are going back to school and so is the ground beef filler dubbed “pink slime.”