Imagine what your life would be like if you’d never had the chance to go to school. For one thing, it’s unlikely you would be reading First News!

How many children across the world are in school?

Around the world, more than 69 million children of primary school age are not in school. That’s more than the entire UK population.

One reason that so many children miss out on an education is because it’s too expensive for their families to send them to school.

Although school is free in the UK, it isn’t in many poor countries, so families have to cover the costs of school fees as well as uniforms and textbooks. For many of the world’s poorest families, who struggle to survive on less than £1 per day, these costs are too high.

Even in places where school is free, the quality of teaching is often so bad that many parents feel they would be better off sending their children to work instead.

What can the UK do to help?

The UK Government believes that helping children around the world to get a decent education is the best way to fight poverty.

That’s why, over the next four years, British aid will be used to help 11 million of the world’s poorest children go to school, and train more than 190,000 teachers, to improve the quality of education.

Samia’s story

Samia is an 11-year-old who lives with her mother, four brothers and three sisters in the slums of Rawalpindi – Pakistan’s fourth-largest city.

Her family is very poor – their small home in the slums has just one room.

One third of Pakistan’s population live in extreme poverty. This means more than 62 million people live on less than 30 pence a day, and regularly go hungry. 17 million children in Pakistan do not go to school.

Why is it difficult for Samia to go to school?

Like many poor families, Samia’s mother, Yasmeen, has struggled to give her children an education. She earns just £48 per month working as a cleaner.

When Samia’s father died a few years ago, her older brothers dropped out of school so they could go to work and help Yasmeen earn money for the family.

Samia would have missed getting an education too, if it wasn’t for the special vouchers her family started to receive from an organisation called the Punjab Education Foundation, which is supported by UK aid.

Yasmeen uses the vouchers to pay the £3 it costs each month for Samia to go to school in Rawalpindi.

“I get a good education at my school,” says Samia. “My favourite subject is English and I want to be a doctor when I grow up.”

Yasmeen is very happy that Samia can go to school. She didn’t get an education and, like half of all adults in Pakistan, she can’t read or write.

“My younger kids will get a good education, get a better job and have a better future,” says Yasmeen.

What is the future for pupils like Samia? 

UK aid is transforming the lives of more than 300,000 children like Samia, by helping them to get an education. This will increase to four million children across Pakistan over the next few years.

Getting more children into school means more people will grow up with the skills needed to help Pakistan work its way out of poverty.

And that means Pakistan will gradually become less dependent on aid from countries like Britain.

Getting more kids into school is just one way UK aid is helping to change the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. To find out more, visit www.dfid.gov.uk.

Words by Nicola Burroughs, DFID