Celebrate the World Cup and help send 72 million children to school!

As the World Cup takes place for the first time ever this year in Africa, the Global Campaign for Education is tying up with the football world to ensure that a legacy is left; to get every child into school. Famous footballers and celebrities such as Gary Lineker, Kevin Spacey, Michael Owen, David James, Thierry Henry, and many more, are signing up to this call, with the aim of just 1GOAL; to get education for all.

In the year 2000, when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed, world leaders promised that every child would complete a quality education by 2015. With just 5 years to go 72 million children are still unable to access primary education, with many millions more forced to drop out of school before they complete their education.

While the world goes football crazy and all eyes are on Africa, schools in the UK are invited to join together with schools in over 100 countries to show their support of education for all.

To support for 1GOAL - Send My Friend to School, your school can:

Make a giant supporter scarf; paint, sew, glue or knit and see how long your class or school's supporter scarf can be. Get everyone to sign their name and send it to the Prime Minister, ahead of the Millennium Development Talks in September, to remind him and other world leaders of their promise to make sure that all children have a primary education by 2015.

Hold a World Cup assembly in your school; on Friday 11th June, World Cup kick-off day, or another date close to that time and help us celebrate the value of education while the world unites to watch its favourite sport.

Teach your pupils about the importance of education; using real life case studies from the developing world, show your students the life-changing impact of education, and explore some of the barriers that still keep many millions of children out of school.

In September this year, a Summit will be held in New York to review the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's), including the target for universal primary education. Of all 8 goals set in 2000, education is probably where the most progress has been made. Indeed there are 40 million more children in school today around the world than there were 10 years ago.

However, the United Nations recently warned that we are on the brink of breaking one of the most important promises the international community has ever made. Education is not only a universal human right but a driver of economic development and global security. The target is still only just within reach, but it will require governments to take bold decisions in the next two years, especially in the current economic climate.

David Archer, Board Member of the Global Campaign for Education and Head of International Education at ActionAid says: "At this rate of progress there will still be 56 million children out of school in 2015. The quickest way to reach the target would be to abolish user fees and expand the teacher work-force, although school buildings and equipment are also high on the priority list. We estimate that approximately £7 billion per year is needed from international donors for primary education with a further £3 billion to educate all children up to the age of 16. The current amount raised globally by donors stands at just £2.5 billion!

To deliver change on this scale, and within this time period, it requires developing countries to substantially increase their investment in education, spending at least 20% of their national budget on education, with half of this on primary education."

Whilst there are 72 million children not in school, one third of these are estimated to be children with disabilities. One such child who is missing out on an education is 14 year old Helen from Uganda. Helen was born almost totally blind but despite this she did attend school for a short time. Sadly her family can only afford to send a certain number of their children to school and Helen can no longer attend and instead remains at home all day.

Helen lives with her mum, four brothers and three sisters. Her mother works as cleaner and her father is a farmer. Helen now spends her days looking after the family by helping with the washing, cooking, cleaning and growing of vegetables. However without being given the chance to go back to school, Helen is likely to remain dependent on her family and experience a life of poverty. International development charity Sightsavers is working to ensure children like Helen can be included, and attend their local school.

Get your pupils involved in 1GOAL - Send My Friend to School! Sign up now to receive a free resource pack, including a DVD, posters and stickers, plus lots more information and learning resources are available on the website. Get your schools pack: www.sendmyfriend.org

www.sendmyfriend.org features lesson plans, teacher templates, loads of activity ideas and background information on the situation for children and teachers in the developing world.

Key Facts on Education For All

(source - Global Monitoring Report 2010)

· 72 million children out of school

· Progress has slowed; two-thirds of the total decline in out-of-school numbers took place between 2002 and 2004. In the three subsequent years the decline was less than 8m.

· On current trends 56 million will be out of school by 2015.

· 54% of children out of school are girls

· 759m illiterate adults, two-thirds women

· Conflict remains a major barrier; 25 million out-of-school children live in low income countries affected by conflict

· 1.9m new teacher posts are needed to meet universal primary education

· 32m out-of-school children live in sub-Saharan Africa

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a coalition of child rights activists, teachers' unions and development organisations around the world, united in their determination to make the right to education a reality.

The GCE UK partners are: ActionAid, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Book Aid International, CAMFED, Christian Aid, City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development, Consortium of Street Children, Comic Relief, Deaf Child Worldwide, Education Action, Handicap International UK, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Link Community Development, National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, National Union of Teachers, Oxfam, Plan UK, Results UK, Save the Children, Sightsavers, Steve Sinnott Foundation, Toybox, Voluntary Service Overseas, World Vision UK

Images credit to is Tugela Ridley/Sightsavers and also the logo for the campaign