Malala used her Nobel Prize money to build a school in northern Pakistan where no secondary education for girls existed. Eight years after opening its doors, Shangla Girls School is a place where 1,050 girls can be as ambitious as they dare and shape their own futures without limits.
Shangla district sits high in the mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, between the villages where Malala's mother and father grew up. The scenery is dramatic — steep valleys, rushing rivers, peaks that disappear into clouds — but the terrain that makes Shangla beautiful also isolates it. For girls, the barriers to education here have always been steep: long distances to school over difficult ground, the cost of books and uniforms, social expectations, early marriage, and until recently, no secondary school for girls in the area at all.
When Malala and Ziauddin founded Malala Fund, one of their earliest dreams was to build a school in Shangla — a place that represented everything they had been fighting for in Swat. And using the Nobel Peace Prize money she won in 2014, Malala set that dream in motion. In 2018, Shangla Girls School opened its doors and welcomed its first 183 students.
Today, the school serves 1,050 girls from primary level to grade 12, supported by more than 45 teachers. While it’s a private school, Malala Fund covers all students’ tuition. We partner with Zindagi Trust, a Pakistani nonprofit dedicated to improving education, to manage the school. Around 70% of students receive financial aid to cover books, uniforms and transportation — the costs that can push girls out of school in many remote areas of Pakistan.
Inside the classroom
Shangla Girls School provides a safe learning environment where girls can explore their interests, develop their confidence and become well-rounded individuals. Seema, a grade 10 student, hones her art skills at Shangla. She is the first girl in her family to go to school, and she travels miles through the mountains every day to attend.
Students participate in academic competitions, take part in leadership programmes and explore higher education pathways through university visits and admissions sessions. Last year, more than 50 students represented Shangla Girls School across 20 district-level events in sports, academics and cultural activities, bringing home six first-place and six second-place finishes.
“Here, I gained overall exposure to skills like chess, computers, and other subjects, opportunities that are uniquely offered at this school,” said Shaifa, a grade 9 student.
Building trust with families
In a community where many families had never sent a daughter to secondary education, the school prioritises regular meetings with parents to reinforce their role in their daughters' education and address concerns directly. Last December, more than 800 students and parents attended a Merit Citation Ceremony that doubled as a community dialogue — celebrating academic achievements while discussing child marriage prevention and mental health. The parents who enrolled their daughters in 2018 were the first to see the value of the school, and they continue to be among its strongest advocates.
With significant support from Canadian philanthropist Reetu Gupta, through the Gupta Family Foundation, and the Muslim World League, we’ve been able to expand the school's campus and strengthen its infrastructure — including reliable water and power supply — so that it can serve even more girls without interruption.
Shangla’s first graduates
More than 15 years ago, a girl in Swat spoke out for her right to go to school. In 2025, the school she built celebrated its first graduating class of 29 girls, with every one of them passing the Swat Board examination with A or A+ grades. Of that group, 22 are now pursuing higher education across Pakistan with full Malala Fund scholarships, made possible through Muslim World League support.
Consider the positive ripple effects that those first 29 graduates will have on their families and communities, where it is rare for a girl to finish secondary school. They will be proof that educating girls is worth every investment a family and government can make, and become 29 reasons for the next family in Shangla to send their daughter to school.
The school is just one part of the world Malala Fund and our partners are building in Pakistan, backed by more than $18 million in sustained investment over more than a decade. We’re funding local advocates, strengthening education systems and advancing the policy changes that ensure every girl in the country has the same opportunities as those in Shangla Girls School.
