Policy paper

UK government support for girls’ education worldwide

Girls’ education is a top international development priority for the UK government.

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

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Seven out of 10 children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a basic text by the age of 10. This increases to 9 out of 10 children in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UK government is working to provide quality education for all children. We do this not only because education is a human right, no matter where in the world you live. We also recognise that girls’ education, and all the benefits that come with it, leads to safer and more prosperous societies.

The UK has supported a total of 19.8 million children with a decent education since 2015. 10 million of these children were girls and 9.5 million of these children were boys. This page provides more information about how we are supporting girls’ education internationally.

Updates to this page

Published 27 July 2023
Last updated 19 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. Updated with links to the G7 Global Objectives baseline and first follow-up reports.

  2. Updated, on International Day of Education, with additional results and announcements.

  3. Statement of voluntary compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics for results estimates added.

  4. Results updated, results estimates and methodology note added for indicator 'Children the FCDO supported to gain a decent education'.

  5. First published.

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