Worldwide, 600 million children and teenagers fail to reach basic levels of learning proficiency. Nearly half of them remain out of school. However, even those in school are not being prepared to succeed in or contribute to society. Amongst the illiterate youth, nearly two out of three are girls – a fact that has remained largely unchanged for the last 20 years.

As one of the Aga Khan Development Networks’s five leading agencies in education, the Aga Khan Foundation works to strengthen education systems to equip girls and boys with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to help them interact effectively with the world and be contributing members to a pluralist society.

To do so, AKF works in partnership with governments, the private sector, civil society, academic institutions, school leaders, teachers, parents, communities and students to develop and scale affordable, innovative solutions that raise the quality and accessibility of public education systems for the most marginalised children worldwide.