Douglas Alexander to help break the record for the World’s Biggest Lesson

Date: Wednesday 23 April 2008
Time: 09.00 – 09.30
Venue: outdoors in Victoria Tower Gardens, Abingdon Street London SW1 (next to the House of Lords)
Media are welcome to attend.

Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, is set to go back to the ‘classroom’ tomorrow (Wednesday 23 April) to take part in the World’s Biggest Lesson. Hundreds of schools around the UK will be aiming to get into the Guinness Book of Records along with young people in 120 countries who will be taught the same ‘core lesson’ simultaneously in two time zones. The Minister will join the lesson in the open air, in an African style classroom, to illustrate how thousands of children have to learn, struggling against the elements and in classes of up to 100 pupils to one teacher.

Organized by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), the lesson is a reminder to world leaders to keep their promise that every child in the world would complete a quality primary education by 2015. With only seven years to go to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education, 72 million children are still missing out on a primary education, with millions more forced to drop out of school before they can complete even a basic education[1]. 

Actress Jan Ravens*, will help to teach the lesson to Douglas Alexander alongside pupils from Tetherdown Primary School and Highgate Woods School (North London) and Kingsbury High School (Brent). Around the country other MPs and celebrities are attending the ‘World’s Biggest Lesson’ in their local schools.

Around the world:

Grammy award-winning artist Shakira will appear alongside students on Capitol Hill in Washington to lend her support to the campaign. On Monday 21 April Shakira held a telephone conference with Gordon Brown and World Bank President, Robert Zoellick to discuss the global education crisis.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive her school report card marking her grades on providing Education for All 
In Cambodia, King Sihamoni will take part in the World’s Biggest Lesson and be taught by children who've been excluded from education and adult learners 
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai is also expected to take part at Isteqlal High School in Kabul
In Kenya, the World's Biggest Lesson is taking place in a Nairobi slum and will focus on how to address the needs of those who've been excluded from school following the recent violence 
In Mozambique, 'Major Aula' (the World's Biggest Lesson) is taking place in schools nationwide, and for some pupils it will be their first chance to sit in class, having previously been excluded because of a disability or being orphaned.   
 
Since 2000, millions of schoolchildren all over the world have taken part in the campaign to make sure that the promise that all children get a quality education is not forgotten. As a result, some governments, including the UK, are doing more and the estimate for the numbers of children out of school has fallen from 100 million to 72 million. 

Douglas Alexander said: ‘I’m really looking forward to taking part in the World’s Biggest Lesson. Education is vital in the fight against poverty and it’s inspirational to see so many young people campaigning for all children to go to school. Giving all children an education is within our grasp if the right steps are taken, and this will be a real lesson for the world.’

The GCE’s report, ‘The Final Countdown’ gives the following recommendations:

• The rate at which the promised UK aid to education is delivered must be tripled in the next two years to meet the 2015 target. Currently the promised £8.5 billion for education is being spent too slowly.
• Countries that are furthest from the education Millennium Development Goals must be prioritised by the UK government by increasing investment in them;  Afghanistan, Burundi, DRC, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Susan and Yemen.
• Greater attention must be given to the quality of education and the inclusion of marginalised children; including girls, disabled children and children who work.

The World’s Biggest Lesson marks the start of Send My Friend ’08. Following this, schoolchildren in the UK will be inviting their MP’s to get creative by completing a ‘missing out’ action card to be part of their school display. The cards will then be sent to the Prime Minister before he flies off to the G8 in Japan at the end of June.

For free resources and more information visit www.sendmyfriend.org