Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the barriers girls face in accessing education throughout the world.

The FCDO plays a leading role in championing every girl's right to 12 years of quality education. Through the UK's hosting of the Global Partnership for Education Replenishment summit and our G7 Presidency, for example, we will put girls' education front and centre of the global agenda in 2021.

We understand girls face a wide range of barriers to accessing education and learning from low quality and gender-insensitive teaching practices to gender-based violence and child marriage. The FCDO is working to remove barriers to girls' education and improve their learning outcomes through a wide range of programmes and policies in the education sector and beyond. We will continue to be a progressive force for women and girls, including for their sexual and reproductive health and rights and right to education, as we help lead the global response to coronavirus. We are challenging attempts to roll back rights globally, and we are present and influential in important forums such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women.