SHE didn’t win the Nobel peace prize — this year — but she has won the world’s admiration and respect. The gracefulness, poise and compassion of a 16-year-old girl who would rather campaign for every child’s right to education than against the Taliban who shot her in the face have been something truly remarkable to behold. That Malala was never your average schoolgirl has been evident for years; what the world has discovered in recent days is that she has grown into a truly extraordinary young woman. There is much sadness and despair in the reality of the circumstances that forced Malala into campaigning for the right to education and that have carried her to global fame. But Pakistan’s most famous young citizen has also demonstrated the kinder though no less resolute side of her country: Malala is focused on improving the human condition rather than lamenting its inadequacies.

To truly honour Malala and the millions of other schoolchildren she speaks for, Pakistan can attempt to translate her dream of universal education into reality. Whether it is school enrolment or the quality of education or infrastructure of the public school system, Pakistan consistently ranks near the bottom internationally — and even by regional standards, performs poorly. Fixing the broken education system here is not just about throwing more money at the problem — though surely the federal and provincial governments need to create the fiscal space to spend more on education and health. Every government comes in promising to improve the education sector, but none has left a significantly improved one as its legacy. The twin, and very familiar, problems of capacity and will appear to be the greatest impediments: the expertise to draft a realistic revival plan at the provincial level is missing as is the political and administrative will to stay focused on the issue of education.

Of course, there is also the very real problem of the radical mindset that opposes modernity and what the majority of the population would regard as the basic tenets of a good education. Malala’s mature and convincing voice has largely drowned out the howls of anger from the Taliban fringe in recent days, but for a still-too-large number of Pakistani children, especially girls, extreme conservatism and violent radicalism are crucial factors in denying them an education. Malala has shown what a single — though powerful and unique — voice can do to help change perceptions. Many more will have to add their voices to hers if the constitutional right to education is to become meaningful for all children.