World counts cost of not educating girls

Failing to let girls finish their education could cost the world as much as 30 trillion US Dollars in lost earnings and productivity. Yet more than 130 million girls worldwide are out of school, says the World Bank.

It has calculated that women who have completed secondary education are more likely to work and earn on average nearly twice as much as those with no schooling.

Low-income nations

Some 132 million girls aged 6 to 17 do not attend school, while fewer than two-thirds of those in low-income nations finish primary school, In addition, only a third of girls finish lower secondary school.

In a report, the World Bank, which aims to help reduce poverty through giving financial assistance to developing countries, says that if every girl in the world finished 12 years of quality education, lifetime earnings for women could increase by 15 trillion USD to 30 trillion USD.

‘Transformative’

The report estimates the global impact of depriving girls of education, and highlights what the bank calls the ‘transformative’ power of education for girls in six areas: earnings and standards of living; child marriage and early childbearing; fertility and population growth; health, nutrition and well-being; agency and decision-making; and social capital and institutions.

“Many of the potential impacts of education on development outcomes apply to both boys and girls,” adds the report. “But not educating girls is especially costly because of the relationships between education, child marriage and early childbearing, and the risks that they entail for young mothers and their children.”