The recent report indicating that the mortality rate for children under 5 is decreasing faster than expected is certainly good news ("Fewer children dying worldwide," May 24). We are seeing the benefits of investment in life-saving interventions such as malaria bed nets, Vitamin A pills, vaccines and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
Educating girls is an additional contributing factor not mentioned in the article but highlighted by authors of the report. A child born to an educated mother is more than twice as likely to survive to the age of 5 as a child born to an uneducated mother. Reduced family size, another factor contributing to improved child survival, is strongly linked to girls' education.
Yet worldwide, 75 million children, most of them girls, lack access even to a basic primary education.
