Nobel prizewinner Malala Yousafzai has called for world leaders to aim higher on children’s education ahead of her 18th birthday on Sunday.

In a speech at the Oslo Education Summit, she urged world leaders to set goals that were “worth working for”.

Malala narrowly avoided death in 2012 after being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban for her outspoken campaigning over girls’ rights to education.

In her address, she spoke about the importance of funding secondary education for all the world’s children, calling it “the education they need to succeed in the modern world”.

The 17-year-old said “the only way you can achieve bigger” is to “dream bigger”.

Malala said the $39 billion of extra money needed to fund free secondary education, on top of existing pledges for primary education, was already in place.

She said: “It may appear as a huge amount of money, but the reality is that it is not so much at all. The world spends many times more than that on military purposes.

“In fact and unfortunately, $39 billion are spent on militaries every eight days. If the world leaders decide to take one week and a day off from war and weapons, we can put every child in school.

She added: “Books are a better investment in our future than bullets. Books, not bullets, will pave the path towards peace and prosperity.”

Malala, who has made her home in Birmingham since the gun attack, said: “I am turning 18 on the 12th of July and my life of being a child will come to an end.

“But there is something that I have learnt from being a child that I will never forget and would carry on even in my adulthood, that is to dream. In fact to dream big, without limit.

“My message today is very simple to our leaders: be a child for a moment, dream with no limit, and dream bigger, this is the only way you can achieve bigger.”

The 17-year-old co-founded the Malala Fund, along with her father, which campaigns and invests in girls’ secondary education.

She was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.