Getting girls into a classroom is not enough in itself; girls have to be able to stay in school and get proper education once enrolled

Many parents prefer to prioritize boys’ education over girls’ – so, if a family cannot afford to send all of their children to school, the interests of boys‘ education are often favored. This leads to girls either being removed from school for early and forced marriage as they are seen as a source of income or expected to take care of siblings at home.

Sometimes people like to ask me why should girls go to school, why is it important for them. But I think the more important question is why shouldn't they, why shouldn't they have this right to go to school.

Poverty remains the most important factor in determining whether a girl can access education.

If we base our conviction on the premise that everyone can learn, then we can reach out of school girls too, with different modes of learning. The longer we keep girls out of school, the further the number increases and the more the desire for global peace will elude us all.

It is not just exposing the girl child to acquire the basic education, but what happens afterwards. Give her skills that would enable her to empower herself, not just acquiring the knowledge. Let the knowledge be there and the knowledge not just the theoretical aspect but let’s have the practical aspect.

Everyone wins when children – and especially girls – have access to education. An educated girl is likely to increase her personal earning potential and prepare herself for a productive and fulfilling life, as well as reduce poverty in the whole community. Investing in girls’ education also helps delay early marriage and parenthood. Our booming economies in Africa need more female engineers, teachers and doctors to prosper and sustain growth.

I was the type of girl who will go to school and come back home to do her chores. I didn't even have a boyfriend until I was in varsity

And when girls cannot go to school and grow up not knowing how to read or write -- that denies the world future women engineers, future women doctors, future women business owners, future women presidents -- that sets us all back. That's a bad tradition -- not providing our girls the same education as our sons. I was saying in Kenya, nobody would put out a football team and then just play half the team. You’d lose. The same is true when it comes to getting everybody and education. You can't leave half the team off -- our young women.

We must nurture and empower our young girls. .. we can lift them up through education. They are the future. Without equal access to education for girls, Africa will not become the power house of the world. We need girls in school not as brides. ’’

The education of the English boy, then as now, was considered a much more serious matter than the education of the English boy's sister. My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brothers' education as a matter of real importance. My education and that of my sister were scarcely discussed at all. Of course we went to a carefully selected girls' school, but beyond the facts that the head mistress was a gentlewoman and that all the pupils were girls of my own class, nobody seemed concerned. A girl's education at that time seemed to have for its prime object the art of "making home attractive"—presumably to migratory male relatives. It used to puzzle me to understand why I was under such a particular obligation to make home attractive to my brothers.

All these girls take care of their children and no longer go to school, or their parents reject them

When a girl is educated, she can read and write, she is aware of the law, and knows love. When a girl is educated, she is aware of her potential; she can read about Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of the World Trade Organisation.

I think girls should be raised in the bottom of a deep, dark sack until they are old enough to know better.