World matters

UK pupils step into shoes of world leaders to help get 58 million children into school

In September this year world leaders will gather in New York to decide how to tackle global poverty over the next 15 years. Now, you and your class can get in on the debate. The Send My Friend to School campaign has launched a new free resource pack to help UK pupils speak out for every child’s right to education, and make sure world leaders commit to seeing the last child out of school get an education. The campaign asks young people to ‘step into the shoes of world leaders’ and tell their local MPs how they would deliver a better future for the world’s children.

The pack is suitable for KS1-4 and includes a DVD of the 2015 campaign film, plus other films, four A2 colour posters with stories of children plus infographics, a sheet of 35 stickers and a teachers’ guide with instructions on how to run the campaign in school.

In addition, there is a range of classroom activities, fact sheets and other learning resources available at sendmyfriend.org to teach about global education issues and to help pupils become active global citizens.

At the turn of the millennium, world leaders promised universal primary education by 2015, but 58 million children are still out of school with girls, children in conflict areas and children with disabilities missing out most. At the current rate of progress it will be 2086 before every child worldwide gets an education.

There has been some great progress, though – millions of young people around the world have spoken out and 50 million more children have enrolled in primary school. Some countries have done really well; Rwanda now has 99% of children in school and Vietnam has one teacher for every 19 primary students. However, others are far off reaching the target. Nigeria, for example, has over 10 million children out of school and an average of 100 pupils in every classroom.