Trillions in global earnings would be lost if females drop out of school

NEW YORK: Failing to let girls finish their education could cost the world as much as US$30 trillion (RM123 trillion) in lost earnings and productivity, yet more than 130 million girls are out of school globally, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

Women who have completed secondary education are more likely to work and earn on average nearly twice as much as those with no schooling, according to a report by the World Bank.

About 132 million girls worldwide aged six to 17 do not attend school, while fewer than two-thirds of those in low-income nations finish primary school, and only a third finish lower secondary school, the World Bank said.

If every girl in the world finished 12 years of quality education, lifetime earnings for women could increase by US$15 trillion (RM61 trillion) to US$30 trillion (RM123 trillion), according to the report.

“Overall, the message is clear: educating girls is not only the right thing to do,” the World Bank said in the report. It also makes economic and strategic sense for countries to fulfil their development potential.”

Other positive impacts of completing secondary school education for girls include a reduction in child marriage, lower fertility rates in countries with high population growth, and reduced child mortality and malnutrition, the World Bank said. “When 130 million girls are unable to become engineers or journalists or CEOs because education is out of their reach, our world misses out on trillions of dollars,” Malala Yousafzai, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in a statement.

“This report is more proof that we cannot afford to delay investing in girls,” said Yousafzai.