WASHINGTON: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged the World Bank and UN on Monday to raise the focus of education in their new millenium goals.

Malala, who in 2012 survived a severe gunshot in the head for her support of girls’ schools in Pakistan, met with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to discuss the coming package of official Sustainable Development Goals the United Nations plans to release later this year. “It is very important that we raise our voices to speak out for girls deprived of a secondary education,” Malala said. “To help all girls and boys achieve their full potential, we should make sure the Sustainable Development Goals include a commitment to fund a 12-year quality and free education for all children, especially girls,” the 17-year-old said.

In September the United Nations will weigh proposals for the Sustainable Development Goals, a series of targets for countries to achieve over the next 15 years. They will replace the Millenium Development Goals created in 2000 for the first 15 years of the century. A meeting is scheduled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in mid-July to find ways to finance the new targets. —AFP