Photo: AFP

A school established by Nobel Laureate Malala Yousufzai in her hometown of Shangla, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has begun operations.

The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner took to Twitter to congratulate students of the school on their first day on Thursday. 

?Congratulations to students at KKF Model School in Shangla on your first day! I was proud to give my @NobelPrize money to help build this school for girls in my home community. Thank you @MalalaFund, @Aman_Foundation, @TheBigHeartUAE & @susanmccaw,? she wrote.

Malala established the school through the Malala Fund to enable all girls of the district to get a quality education.

In 2014, Malala vowed to construct a school and college in her home district. Speaking through a video-link at the ?Malala Education Seminar? in November 2014, she had said most of the children in her native district were deprived of education due to financial constraints. Malala had said her birthplace required more schools for girls.

?The Shangla district is without schools and if some areas have educational institutions these are without basic facilities,? she maintained.

?Twenty-five underprivileged children are being funded through this programme to get education at standard schools,? she had said and vowed that these children would be supported till completion of their education.

Malala was born in 1997 in the Shangla district where she spent her childhood till her parents migrated to the adjacent district of Swat.

The Nobel laureate set up the Malala Fund after the Taliban tried to assassinate her in October 2012 for asserting her right to go to school.

The Malala Fund supports the education and empowerment of girls in Pakistan and around the world and provides grants to civil society organisations and individuals focused on education.

The fund is run by a board of trustees, including Malala and her family.