MALALA is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, where the local Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.

MALALA'S LIFE 

Malala Yousafzai became a prominent activist for the right to education. Based in Birmingham, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organisation with Shiza Shahid, and in 2013, she co-authored I Am Malala, an international best seller.  In 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi of India.

Currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group.

 In the 5-9 age group, 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education.

EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN 

Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52 percent of the poorest children (58 percent girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78 percent of girls are out of school.

Nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and this drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level.

DISPARITIES BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS