'Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons' | Malala Yousafzai

Education campaigner Malala Yousafzai delivers a speech to the UN on her sixteenth birthday, Malala Day Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

This is a transcription of the speech that Malala Yousafzai gave to the United Nations on 12 July 2013, the date of her 16th birthday and "Malala Day" at the UN.

In the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful.

Honorable UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon, respected president of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic, honorable UN envoy for global education Mr Gordon Brown, respected elders and my dear brothers and sisters: Assalamu alaikum.

Today is it an honor for me to be speaking again after a long time. Being here with such honorable people is a great moment in my life and it is an honor for me that today I am wearing a shawl of the late Benazir Bhutto. I don't know where to begin my speech. I don't know what people would be expecting me to say, but first of all thank you to God for whom we all are equal and thank you to every person who has prayed for my fast recovery and new life. I cannot believe how much love people have shown me. I have received thousands of good wish cards and gifts from all over the world. Thank you to all of them. Thank you to the children whose innocent words encouraged me. Thank you to my elders whose prayers strengthened me. I would like to thank my nurses, doctors and the staff of the hospitals in Pakistan and the UK and the UAE government who have helped me to get better and recover my strength.

I fully support UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his Global Education First Initiative and the work of UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown and the respectful president of the UN General Assembly Vuk Jeremic. I thank them for the leadership they continue to give. They continue to inspire all of us to action. Dear brothers and sisters, do remember one thing: Malala Day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights.

There are hundreds of human rights activists and social workers who are not only speaking for their rights, but who are struggling to achieve their goal of peace, education and equality. Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists and millions have been injured. I am just one of them. So here I stand. So here I stand, one girl, among many. I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard. Those who have fought for their rights. Their right to live in peace. Their right to be treated with dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right to be educated.

Dear friends, on 9 October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends, too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.

I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. And my dreams are the same. Dear sisters and brothers, I am not against anyone. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I am here to speak for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists. I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there was a gun in my hand and he was standing in front of me, I would not shoot him. This is the compassion I have learned from Mohammed, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. And this is the forgiveness that I have learned from my father and from my mother. This is what my soul is telling me: be peaceful and love everyone.

Dear sisters and brothers, we realize the importance of light when we see darkness. We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced. In the same way, when we were in Swat, the north of Pakistan, we realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The wise saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword." It is true. The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them. This is why they killed 14 innocent students in the recent attack in Quetta. And that is why they kill female teachers. That is why they are blasting schools every day because they were and they are afraid of change and equality that we will bring to our society. And I remember that there was a boy in our school who was asked by a journalist why are the Taliban against education? He answered very simply by pointing to his book, he said, "a Talib doesn't know what is written inside this book."

They think that God is a tiny, little conservative being who would point guns at people's heads just for going to school. These terrorists are misusing the name of Islam for their own personal benefit. Pakistan is a peace loving, democratic country. Pashtuns want education for their daughters and sons. Islam is a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood. It is the duty and responsibility to get education for each child, that is what it says. Peace is a necessity for education. In many parts of the world, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, war and conflicts stop children from going to schools. We are really tired of these wars. Women and children are suffering in many ways in many parts of the world.

In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labor. Many schools have been destroyed in Nigeria. People in Afghanistan have been affected by extremism. Young girls have to do domestic child labor and are forced to get married at an early age. Poverty, ignorance, injustice, racism and the deprivation of basic rights are the main problems, faced by both men and women.

Today I am focusing on women's rights and girls' education because they are suffering the most. There was a time when women activists asked men to stand up for their rights. But this time we will do it by ourselves. I am not telling men to step away from speaking for women's rights, but I am focusing on women to be independent and fight for themselves. So dear sisters and brothers, now it's time to speak up. So today, we call upon the world leaders to change their strategic policies in favor of peace and prosperity. We call upon the world leaders that all of these deals must protect women and children's rights. A deal that goes against the rights of women is unacceptable.

We call upon all governments to ensure free, compulsory education all over the world for every child. We call upon all the governments to fight against terrorism and violence. To protect children from brutality and harm. We call upon the developed nations to support the expansion of education opportunities for girls in the developing world. We call upon all communities to be tolerant, to reject prejudice based on caste, creed, sect, color, religion or agenda to ensure freedom and equality for women so they can flourish. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back. We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave, to embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential.

Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child's bright future. We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education. No one can stop us. We will speak up for our rights and we will bring change to our voice. We believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the whole world because we ware all together, united for the cause of education. And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.

Dear brothers and sisters, we must not forget that millions of people are suffering from poverty and injustice and ignorance. We must not forget that millions of children are out of their schools. We must not forget that our sisters and brothers are waiting for a bright, peaceful future.

So let us wage, so let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first. Thank you.

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Malala Yousafzai to tell UN: books and pens are our most powerful weapons

Malala Yousafzai: education is the only solution. Photograph: BBC

Malala Yousafzi, the Pakistani schoolgirl brought to England after being shot in the head by the Taliban, will address the United Nations today.

She will mark her 16th birthday by delivering a speech at the UN headquarters in New York to call on governments to ensure free compulsory education for every child.

It will be the teenager's first public speech since she was attacked on a bus in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley after standing up for her right to go to school in her home country.

She will tell a delegation of more than 500 young people: "Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.

"One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first."

The schoolgirl set up the Malala Fund following the assassination attempt by the Taliban in October.

She spent hours undergoing surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where surgeons tried to repair the damage caused by a bullet which grazed her brain.

A report released to coincide with her address says 57 million children around the world are not going to school.

The UNESCO and Save the Children study says the number of children of primary school age who are not getting an education has fallen from 60 million in 2008, but during that period the percentage of young people in conflict-affected countries who are not at primary school rose from 42% to 50%.

Save The Children said the report showed that in 2012 there were more than 3,600 documented attacks on education, including violence, torture and intimidation against children and teachers resulting in death or grave injuries, as well as the shelling and bombing of schools and the recruitment of school-aged children by armed groups.

Since the start of the Syria conflict more than two years ago, 3,900 schools have been destroyed, damaged or are occupied for non-educational purposes, the report says.

The report, Children Still Battling to go to School, finds that 95% of the 28.5 million children not getting a primary school education live in low and lower-middle income countries – 44% in sub-Saharan Africa, 19% in south and west Asia and 14% in the Arab states, UNESCO said.

Girls make up 55% of the total and were often the victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts, UNESCO said.

"Across many of the world's poorest countries, armed conflict continues to destroy not just school infrastructure, but also the hopes and ambitions of a whole generation of children," UNESCO's director-general, Irina Bokova, said.

Malala, who now attends Edgbaston High School for girls in Birmingham, will present a petition of more than 3 million signatures to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, demanding education for all.

The UN has declared 12 July, her birthday, "Malala Day". The event has been organised by the former prime minister Gordon Brown, now the UN special envoy for global education.

He said: "Getting every girl and boy into school by 2015 is achievable.

"It is only impossible if people say it's impossible. Malala says it is possible – and young people all over the world think it is possible."

Teenagers Sam Whittingham and Millie Wells will represent the UK at the event after winning a national competition to become young ambassadors for the global campaign for education.

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Thoughts on selecting books for reluctant readers in key stage 3

Selecting a book: engage reluctant readers by choosing books to suit your year group based on their life experiences. Photograph: Alamy

With Ofsted placing more emphasis on reading, some schools may find themselves having to shift the focus of their schemes of learning to include more class readers – where the whole class covers and reads a book together.

Over the years – teaching English to lower-attaining key stage 3 students in mainstream schools, special schools and pupil referral units – I have found the class reader to be a great tool. A well-chosen class reader helps structure my schemes of learning, provide an 'in' for students who typically say they don't like reading and writing and for students who have often emotional and social issues, serve up opportunities for discussions they might find threatening through more typical mentoring one-to-one sessions.

The first thing I look at when choosing a class reader is how accessible it is in terms of the language used. Most lower-attaining students at KS3 will tend to have varying difficulty with decoding polysyllabic and irregular words, being reliant on sight vocabulary and basic phonics to get by. There are a wide range of simple readability calculators available on the internet (just search for 'readability test').

I tend to use SMOG (short for Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) which works by counting words of three or more syllables in three 10-sentence samples from the start, middle and end of a text, finding the square root of the total count before adding three to calculate the school year equivalent and five for the chronological age equivalent.

The SMOG method is fairly respected but there does need to be a note of caution as it only tests decoding. I have found, particularly so in mainstream schools, that lower-attaining students are increasingly arriving with functional decoding skills – as evidenced by assessments such as the Salford Sentence Reading Test – yet when they undertake a comprehension test, they are around three to four years behind peers.

It is also important to consider the vocabulary used in the texts, both in terms of specific words and how they present as a whole.

Over the years I have sometimes come unstuck with highly-engaging books such as Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells and even the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling because the language has proved endlessly difficult. It is OK, desirable even, to have really challenging parts to a text but if it becomes too much of a persistent struggle, students with a history of struggling will switch off.

I believe strongly that students should simply experience and be enriched by English as well as be coached in the 'mechanics', especially for those who struggle with the more technical side. As a result I give lots of consideration into what books might really hook in my classes. This naturally tends to vary from year 7 to year 9, as students grow from starry-eyed children into moody teenagers. I find it also varies within a year group depending on their life experiences and level of 'street-wiseness'.

For Y7s, I find Roald Dahl's many hits including Danny Champion of the World, Matilda and his childhood autobiography, Boy, to be both age-appropriate and appealing. I often use all three together, reading one in full and dipping into the other two, as a way of comparing works of one author; looking in particular at the relationship between an author's real life and fictional lives.

Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian is another Y7 favourite. Although with Y7 the danger always lies in rocking up with a new class reader, with weeks of planning in place, to hear the much-feared line: "Sir, we did this in year 6 with Mrs Smith…" Usually followed with: "She was such a cool teacher, she was really nice… and she let us play games."

For Y8s I have long used Skellig by David Almond and Holes by Louis Sachar (particularly useful for teaching non-linear narrative structure), which are commonly used across many schools. The great thing about these reads is they tend to feature characters of a similar age, characters the students feel they can relate to.

More recently I have also used The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo – also using Goodnight Mr Tom if they haven't read it already. Again, these books are great as a trio because they cover a similar topic which I title 'Voices of War'. This can then be linked in with factual accounts and poetry.

With Y9s I find at this point their perspective is changing quite rapidly from older child to young teenager. They are naturally more likely to reject stories perceived as 'babyish' – and it only takes one or two to proclaim this for their hyper self-conscious peers to follow suit.

The flipside is at this age they are still very young in other ways and caution is needed not to serve anything too hard-hitting, or likely to invoke the ire of parents. I have found A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines to be timelessly appealing, often surprising myself with just how engaging students find it. This novel also has a play script adaptation which students love and because parents frequently recall reading the book during their school days, it adds further encouragement.

I have also used Bend It Like Beckham by Narinder Dhami and Stone Cold by Robert Swindells to retune the tougher crowds into reading – and in doing so, also bring them into higher-level activities looking at character perspectives, context and inference.

With the majority of the above book recommendations you will also find they come with a film adaptation. I am sure this will draw criticism from the more purist, dare I say it puritanical, advocates of English teaching. I half-expect Michael Gove to honour me as a bad example. However, I find that a film can be used as an excellent carrot for reluctant readers, with students working much harder on their reading and follow-up activities for five to 10 minutes of film at the end of the lesson. It also provides opportunity to compare the two versions, considering the demands of the different formats, different audiences and so on.

Finally, with every class reader I use I am keen to make sure that they have enough meat on the bones to trigger some discussions around real-life issues. I have come to believe, in my nearly decade-long work with students who have complex social-emotional needs, the best way to challenge and grow their perspectives is through the medium of story. Put simply, the stories I choose are about them but not about them.

Fortunately we don't have to look hard. We can find some excellent themes across the books mentioned above, from the more jovial works of Roald Dahl which also cover big issues such as loss of parents and adult cruelty to more obviously meaningful texts such as Skellig and A Kestrel for a Knave which I uncover new lines of inquiry with each reading.

With some books, particularly so I have found with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the subject matter is almost too weighty to be taught in isolation and sufficient time needs to be given to teaching 'the real story behind the story'. Of course, this could be made easier if synchronised with history schemes of learning. In particular I have found Flares of Memory by Sheila Chamovitz, a collection of memoirs based on childhood experiences of The Holocaust, to be a powerful accompaniment to John Boyne's fable.

In recent months, to try and nurture independent thinking through discussion, I have attempted to draw on the theory and methodology of Matthew Lipman's 'Philosophy for Children', known commonly as P4C. This is still very much a work in progress.

Stephen King got it right when he said: "There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words – the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book." I doubt I will be selecting one of his stories to use with my students anytime soon but I think this is great advice; find a good read, with powerful content, that you like as much as the children do, and celebrate it.

Matt Grant is an SEN Coordinator at Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton. He has worked there for three years, previously working at a special school and PRU. Matt has his own website, Humans Not Robots, and tweets as @HumansNotRobots?.

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Children turn away from books in favour of reading electronically

The findings, in an annual survey of the reading habits of eight to 16-year-olds carried out by the National Literacy Trust, show that 39 per cent read daily using electronic devices - including tablets and eReaders - but only 28 per cent read printed materials daily.? The number reading eBooks has doubled in the last two years from six to 12 per cent.

However, the report is a blow to attempts to improve reading standards as research also shows? those who read print as nearly twice as likely to be above average readers as children who read electronically (26 per cent as opposed to 15.5 per cent).? In addition, those who only read on screen are? four times less likely to say they enjoy reading (12 per cent compared with 51 per cent).

The Trust is urging parents and teachers to promote a better balance between using books and technological devices for reading.

“Whilst we welcome the positive impacyt which technology has on bringing further reading opportunities to young people, it’s crucial that reading in print is not cast aside,” said Jonathan Douglas, director of the NLT.

“We are concerned by our finding that children who only read on-screen are significantly less likely to enjoy reading and less likely to be good readers.”

The survey covered 34, 910 children between the ages of eight and 16.

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