Imagine never going to school

Have you ever imagined what you would be doing today if you had never been to school?

So much of who you marry, who your friends are, where you live, what job you do, what entertainment you use or sports you follow, how you relate to the people in your neighborhood and city — your life is greatly influenced by the fact that you went to school.

The fact that you can read and write, do basic math, and know something of the world beyond your front gate goes back to your time in school. And particularly your primary school.

For needy children in developing countries some of the most significant aspects of their adult life are directly related to being able to learn in a classroom, or even under a banyan tree with your teacher using an old, rudimentary blackboard.

And yet there are nearly 80 million children of school age across the world are not attending classes. More than half of them are girls. And yet there is overwhelming evidence that simply getting children into school, and particularly getting girls into schools, can slow down and divert the spread of AIDS, lift the economic performance of a whole country, and break the poverty cycle for individual families.

We are grateful for our education. We ought to be finding ways to help children in needy families have the same chance.