ActionAid: McFly and pupils challenge PM on teacher shortfall

McFly joins UK pupils to challenge PM and other G8 leaders on the 100 million children still out of school

16.30 Tony Blair meets McFly and pupils from around the UK in garden of no.10 Downing Street

One year on from the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, schoolchildren from around the UK will meet the Prime Minister to urge him to work with other world leaders to ensure that every child gets an education. They will be delivering cut-out teachers to Tony Blair, each one symbolising a real teacher needed by a child – there is a shortfall of at least 15 million teachers worldwide.

The pupils meeting the Prime Minister represent the 8,000 schools (about a quarter of all UK schools) that have participated in ‘My Friend Needs A Teacher’, a children’s campaign to ensure that every child in the world has a properly qualified and adequately paid teacher and can learn in a class no larger than 40. The campaign is organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a coalition of international aid agencies and teachers unions.

Tom Fletcher from Mc Fly said: “ At the moment, many kids in the developing world struggle to learn in classes of over 100. These are the lucky ones; over 100 million children are still robbed of their right to an education. And, kids in the UK think that’s unfair.”

Teachers in the developing world are under pressure – rising enrolments, the impact of HIV and AIDS, low salaries and poor living conditions are all affecting the supply and quality of teachers. In Zambia there is an average of 64 pupils to every primary teacher
and in Uganda half of primary teachers have no formal training at all.

Janet Convery, GCE spokesperson said: “Schools in the UK have been amongst the most vocal in raising awareness about the 100 million children out of school and the UK government is responding. Since last year’s G8 summit the UK has taken a welcome lead by pledging to focus much of the increased overseas aid on basic education. We now need to see this commitment translated into real progress in global education. What children really want to know is that, in the last year have the G8 leaders made any real difference to the lives of millions of children still out of school?”

The children will give 3 challenges to Tony Blair:

To take the cut-out ‘teachers’ to this month’s G8 summit in Russia and impress on the other world leaders the importance of every child having a properly qualified and adequately paid teacher
To urge other world leaders to follow his lead by pledging significant aid for education
To report back to supporters of the GCE and show that promises made by world leaders have a dramatic impact on the numbers of children robbed of an education

In support of ‘My Friend Needs A Teacher’ schoolchildren around the country have been talking about their ideal teacher and then creating brightly coloured cut-out teachers. Thousands of these “teachers” have been sent directly to the Prime Minister and over 135 MP’s have been invited back to school to receive the model teachers and to commit to do all they can to get quality education for all. Visit www.sendmyfriend.org
Notes to Editors:

1. For further information, access to Downing Street, interviews and African film footage contact:
Karen Garvin, Media Team, GCE UK + 44 (0) 20 8442 1362/ 07971 576917
Email: Karen.Garvin@actionaid.org.uk
Danny Mazliah, ActionAid media team + 44 (0) 20 7561 7592 / 07970 817127
Email: daniel.mazliah@actionaid.org.uk

2. For photographs please contact:
Laurence Watts
Laurence.watts@actionaid.org.uk 020 7561 7616

3. Facts and figures on global education:

Education is a human right – and one of the most effective routes out of poverty – yet more than 100 million children in the world receive no education.
Approximately 60% of these children are girls.
A single year of primary education will increase a woman’s wages by 20%
Children who miss primary school are twice as likely to get HIV/AIDS
Children born to mums who can read have a 50% better chance of surviving past the age of 5
Many sub-Saharan countries spend more in debt repayments to rich countries than they do on primary education
World leaders from 182 countries signed up to an agreement to get all children in primary school by 2015.
At the current rate of progress this won’t happen for 150 years.
4. Schools participating in Downing Street for ‘My Friend Needs A Teacher’ are:

Saint George’s C of E School Gravesend, Kent
Langdon School East Ham, London
Leigh Primary School Tameside, Manchester
Ysgol Emmanuel Ryll, N.Wales
South Street Primary Bedminster, Bristol

5. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a coalition of international development agencies and teachers’ unions united in their determination to make the right to education a reality. The UK partners are: Actionaid UK, ATL, Book Aid International, Comic Relief, (EIS), Link Community Development, NASUWT, NUT, Oxfam GB, PLAN UK, Save the Children, SSTA, Sight Savers International, UTU and VSO.
6. The cut-out teachers were designed by communications designers Thomas.matthews