Taliban shooting survivor Malala Yousafzai wins place to study at Oxford University
Courageous children’s education campaigner received conditional offer from prestigious institution five years after she almost died from bullet to the head
CHILDREN’S education campaigner Malala Yousafzai has won a place to study at Oxford University.
The courageous 19-year-old received the offer nearly five years after she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban.
In October 2012, then just 15, Malala was shot by one of the terror group’s gunmen after Taliban leaders decided she should be killed.
The sick terrorists had previously banned girls from going to school and disapproved of her campaigning to improve women's education in her native Pakistan.
After making a recovery and moving to the UK she won a Nobel Peace Prize – the youngest ever laureate – at the age of 17.
The Birmingham-based student is currently preparing to sit her A-Levels and needs to gain 3As to take up her place on the Politics, Philosophy and Economics course at Oxford.
She revealed her university offer at the Association of School and College Leaders conference yesterday.
She said: “I'm in year 13, I have my A-Level exams coming and I have received a conditional offer which is three As, so I need to get the three As, that's what my focus is right now, and I hope to continue my work and also continue my studies.
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“And I'm really thankful to you all for your support for encouraging me for my mission. That's what makes me and keeps me so strong so thank you so much for that, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.”
She was the final speaker at the Birmingham conference centre with delegates giving her a standing ovation when she finished.
Alongside her school studies she works for the Malala Fund and added: “My goal is to make sure every child, a girl and a boy, they get the opportunity to go to school.
“It is their basic human right, so I will be working on that and I will never stop until I see the last child going to school.”
She also got the audience laughing after she revealed how she found out about winning the Nobel Peace Prize during a Chemistry lesson.
She said: “Suddenly, our deputy head teacher appears in the classroom and I'm just quite shocked, because why would she call me? I thought I was in trouble or something.
“She called me outside and I went and she said ‘you have won the Nobel Peace Prize’, so it was a big surprise, and I said ‘thank you’”.
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