Global Action Week runs every year to highlight the right to education all around the world. This year the highlight was the World’s Biggest Lesson on 23rd April. Many of you joined in too! Find out what was covered in the lesson.
The World’s Biggest Lesson took place all around the world. Politicians went back to school to learn why so many children are missing out on education and what needs to be done about it.
Leaders who went back to the classroom around the world included the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development Alexander Douglas; German Chancellor Angela Merkel and The King of Cambodia. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and the country’s Minister of Education were taught by pupils at Isteqlal High School.
Read about the event in the UK
Singer Shakira got involved in the USA and a joint video link-up lesson was held with a school in Palestine. 1 million people took part in the West Bank and Gaza where The Minister of Education and Minister of Finance also attended the event and met with children who have not had the chance to go to school.
In Bangladesh children’s rallies, art competitions, street plays and discussions took place. More than 300 schools in the Dominican Republic compiled report cards and wrote letters to political leaders about education that were delivered to the National Congress. In Guatemala events included a photo exhibition, attended by Officials, students, parents and teachers looking at the effects of not having an education.
The Ugandan parliament were petitioned by campaigners who want them to discuss the Education Bill and to make it into law. If this happens it will allow free, compulsory schooling for every child in Uganda.
The World’s Biggest Lesson aimed to highlight the different reasons why children are missing out on their right to education. In Kenya a lesson took place in a Nairobi slum. It drew attention to the fact that some children have faced violence and are missing out on school following the recent elections. For some children involved in The World’s Biggest Lesson in Mozambique, it was their first chance to sit in class. Many are not able to go to school because of poverty, being orphaned or because they are disabled. The Minister of Education was taught the lesson by children at a big event in Maputo.
The quality of education in some schools will be being highlighted in Lesotho. Politicians and community leaders will go back to schools in the rural disadvantaged parts of the country, to witness difficulties such as poor school infrastructure, over-crowded classrooms, and poor quality learning materials.
In El Genena, in Sudan, the issue of providing education to internally-displaced people camps will be discussed with Ministers, and despite political tensions the World’s Biggest Lesson looked set to go ahead in schools in Zimbabwe.
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