May Rihani, from the U.N. Girl's Education Initiative's Global Advisory Committee, gave an unlikely example from a "life skills" curriculum being used in Mali. "One of the lessons is about diarrhea. Diarrhea is about quality of education because it's relevant, because the child would learn in the school about diarrhea and will go tell the mother. The mother would recognize that this education is important to her and to her family and would want the child to continue to go to school," she stated.

UNICEF says girls who are educated can not only contribute to their families and their communities, but are also at lower risk of violence, abuse, exploitation and diseases, like HIV/AIDS.

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report says an additional $16 billion in annual funding would be needed to achieve universal primary school education by 2015.