Education, Gender, and Development: Why Investing in Girls’ Education Still Transforms Nations

When national development is brought up, it is often restricted to roads, technology, or new industries. While these things are relevant and necessary for national development, I strongly believe we need to focus a bit more on education.

Education empowers people to build, maintain, and improve systems, technology and industries. Without proper education, you can’t achieve these and more on a sustainable level.

Nothing affects national development more than innovation and the preservation of knowledge, which is through learning. The people are the heart of a nation.

So, if we are serious about development, we need to prioritize education and also make sure it’s inclusive, that is our education includes the boy child and the girl child. Both boys and girls matter, and history has shown that educating girls brings the strongest long-term results for any nation. This is because society already places a lot of responsibility on women and girls, giving them proper education will echo through the whole community because of their impact.

A girl takes what she has learned from the classroom and pours into her immediate family, neighbors, community. This is how change spreads.

A child born to a mother that can read is 50% more likely to survive past age five than a child born to an illiterate woman. Plus, a girl who has finished secondary school will likely start a business, earn and raise educated children.

Another thing is how educated girls tend to marry later, make good decisions about their health, and speak up more in their families and communities. Now this is a big plus!

We see many girls still face barriers like school fees, household chores, early marriage, and the notion that education is a waste on the girl child.

If we work together to remove these barriers, the results will be tangible. It doesn’t have to be grand. It could start with more scholarships, creating safer learning environments, being more supportive, reorientation to abolish the idea that education is wasted on the female gender.

A nation grows when its girls grow. Therefore, investing in girls’ education is one of the best choices a nation can make.