Downing Street celebrates girls education

Campaigners, teachers and young women have been welcomed to Downing Street by the Prime Minister to celebrate the global achievements of girls in education and entrepreneurship.

Boris Johnson met several Youth Advocates from Girl Guides, who discussed their girl-led manifesto, ‘Future Girl’, whilst teachers and pupils met guests including FGM campaigner Fahma Mohammed; Science Girl director Anna Zacharia; Amy Stephens, founder of ‘Chicks with Bricks’; and Belinda Parmar, activist and founder of ‘The Empathy Business’.

Johnson said: “This event was a fantastic opportunity to meet so many trailblazers in the world of education and empowerment for girls and women. We’ve just seen a terrific set of GCSE and A Level results – a testament to the hard graft of young people, their dedicated teachers and their families. Girls are bagging the majority of the top grade 9 results at GCSE and narrowing the gap in subjects like physics and maths at A Level.

“I’m passionate about making sure girls everywhere get access to a good education – and that’s why I announced funding for 600,000 children to have the chance to go to school for the first time at the G7 summit last week. I was tremendously inspired by the young women I’ve met and I’m confident their successes will encourage a new generation of female leaders.”