Embargo: 1 March 2008

With only 7 years to go to meeting the Education For All targets, 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 . The Send My Friend to School ’08 call to action launches on 14 March inviting UK schools to ask all politicians and decision makers to speed up their efforts to provide a primary education for all by 2015.

The campaign has led some powerful actions over the past 3 years including sending one million cut out messages - known as buddies - to world leaders when they met at the Gleneagles G8 in 2005.

This year, there are two challenges:

• To get as many UK MPs as possible to use their artistic talents to show how they will be supporting the campaign. Children will be raising awareness about the issue by creating giant displays* in their own schools. MPs will be asked to contribute to the display by creating a montage to show what they would have missed out on if they had not received an education. It is hoped that each MP montage will include a pledge by the MP explaining what they will personally be doing to help reach the education for all children target. Schools will be asked to ‘capture’ their work , by photographing the display or by collapsing it and sending the individual cards to Gordon Brown by 30 June, before he flies off to the G8 in Japan.
• To get as many students as possible to take part in a record breaking attempt to hold “The World’s Biggest Lesson” on Wednesday 23 April. Young people in 120 countries will be taught the same ‘core lesson’ at the same time. Gordon Brown, MPs and other politicians from around the world will be invited to attend one of their constituency based schools.

Recent estimates of the number of children out of school have fallen by nearly 30 million since 2005, thanks to the concerted efforts of campaign supporters. However, if we continue at current rates of progress, those remaining children will not receive an education in our lifetimes, let alone by 2015.

The Global Campaign for Education is therefore calling on the UK government to:

• Ensure quality by investing in teacher recruitment, training and retention now, especially in countries furthest from achieving the Education for All goals.
• Support poor countries to enable girls, children with disabilities, child labourers and children from linguistic and other minority groups to complete a good quality education – for example by training teachers to be able to work with all children; by providing their families with financial support to enable them to send their children to school; and by delivering on aid promises quickly.
• Deliver on aid promises and continue to increase investment in education in countries affected by conflict and war – many of which are furthest from achieving the Education for All goals.

Owain James, International Co-ordinator for the Global Campaign for Education said:

"Possibly one of the greatest injustices of all is that where we live and who we are makes all the difference to whether we get a quality education; 57% of children out of school are girls, 33% have a disability and 50% of children who don’t go to school live in war zones…Education is a human right and the quickest way out of poverty. We are now only 7 years from the target date for Education For All and unless the increase in education aid comes on stream in the next two years millions of children, often the most vulnerable, will continue to be denied the most basic of human rights."

Free resources to support this year’s GCE include:

• An eight minute DVD presented by our young Ambassadors, Lily Taylor King and Jenade Sharma, two secondary school students who have become the ‘face’ of the Send My Friend campaign
• Campaign leaflet including a pledge postcard to be sent to the school’s local MP.
• Materials for making the displays *
• Stickers