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Suhani*, a 12-year-old girl from rural Rajasthan, India, went to school regularly until a few years ago. She struggled with reading and writing and had no support to strengthen her abilities.

Marufa, a 14-year-old girl from the Korail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a class five student at Boubazar-1 BRAC Primary School on track to sit the Primary Education Completion Examination. Three years ago, Marufa was in class one and could neither read nor write. She was shy, nervous, and worried about school. Marufa did not participate in class and she disliked school rules and regulations.

Since Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003, enrolment rates have increased to 84 per cent. However, in some regions, where poverty levels and gender inequality are high, only 19 per cent of girls are enrolled in school.

​With a clean face and uniform, seven-year-old Anjana Bano races ahead of her two older brothers as they head for school. On her way, she waves to her disabled mother, watching with pride from the hut her family calls home. This was not always the case.​

In Cote d’Ivoire, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Bridging Tomorrow project and Educate A Child have trained 460 school directors in school management, child protection, and the necessity of educating children, especially young mothers. Its accelerated learning programme has enrolled 16,000 OOSC since 2013.

In 1961 when Queen Elizabeth II visited Swat, she was so overwhelmed by its natural beauty she referred to it as “the Switzerland of the East”. Over the past decade violence has upended this description.