Send my friend to school 2015 Pamaronkoh Community Primary School, Freetown, Sierra Leone Photo: Aubrey Wade/Oxfam

What makes your school great? Begin by thinking about all the things that make your school great. Is it the teachers and the lessons they teach? Is it the excellent facilities? Is it the support and individual advice that students receive? Is it the after-school clubs and enrichment opportunities? Is it equal opportunities for all students? Is it the feeling of safety, security and being in a community? Is it the fact that state education is free and parents don’t pay school fees? Or is it other things? We now understand much more about what makes a good quality education. Send My Friend to School is a campaign which aims to ensure that every child in the world has access to good quality education, regardless of which country they live in and whether they’re a girl or a boy. Just imagine the power of a world where every child everywhere is in school – learning and aspiring. Photo: Chris O’Donovan/Oxfam

Millennium Development Goal 2 2000 - 2015 ‘By 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling’ Let’s begin with the background. In the year 2000 the world set an ambitious education target. World leaders promised that by 2015, all children would be able to complete a primary school education. This target was the second of 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). What do you notice about the wording of MDG2? It only mentions primary school (not secondary school or further and adult education). It doesn’t say anything specific about the quality of education; for example, things like class size, teachers being qualified, or children having textbooks. Although these things were recognised as being important, the biggest emphasis was on getting children enrolled in school and then making sure that they stayed on to finish primary school. Image: www.mdgmonitor.org/mdg-2-achieve-universal-primary-education/

Success stories 42 million more children go to school Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 met with some success. Between 2000 and 2015 the number of out of school children fell from around 100 million to around 58 million. In other words, 42 million children who would not have gone to school in 2000 were going to school in 2015 (UNESCO). For example, in Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries, the number of children out of school was cut by half between 2002 and 2015 (Guardian) and the government abolished school fees in 2003. This enabled many more children from poor families to go to school. Pamaronkoh Community Primary School, Freetown, Sierra Leone Photo: Aubrey Wade/Oxfam 42 million more children go to school

58 m children out of primary school 263 m children out of school altogether Despite the success stories and good progress in many countries, the overall school report for 2015 was disappointing. The world missed the target of every child finishing primary school by quite some way. There were still 58 million children missing out on primary school in 2015. Simply being in school is only part of the story. The quality of education which children receive is just as important. For example, India has 96% of its children enrolled in school. However, around ¼ of Indian Year 8 students cannot read a book aimed at children in Year 2 (source: ASER, 2014). These children are attending school, but they are not learning effectively. Read through the statistics on the slide. There are two main reasons for this disappointing progress: The needs of many out-of-school children are not being met. For example, they may have a disability or live in areas which are affected by conflict and where education has collapsed. There simply wasn’t enough money being spent globally on education for every child to go to school and receive a good quality education. Altogether a further $26 billion was required from countries to pay for the extra school places and teachers which were needed to educate every child in primary school. Graphic: GCE UK (statistics accurate in June 2015). The facts June 2015

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 2015 – 2030 All children to complete a free, equal and good quality primary and secondary school education. A good quality pre-school education for all children. A good quality education for work skills. All young people to have good literacy and numeracy skills. Good education facilities for all students. Increase the number of qualified teachers. In 2014 and 2015 world leaders met and agreed the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). SDG4 is the new global target for education and is the 4th of 17 new goals. The target date for achieving all the SDGs is 2030. The slide summarises the main points of SDG4 What are the main differences between SDG4 and MDG2 which it replaced? SDG4 sets the target of all children completing both primary and secondary school, not only primary school as before. SDG4 sets targets for pre-school and education for work, as well as formal education. There is a strong emphasis on good quality education across all the age groups. The target has separate goals for school facilities and qualified teachers. Overall, SDG4 recognises how important education is and sets much more ambitious targets than MDG2. The global goal is now for all children to complete primary and secondary school, and learn to the best of their abilities. Image: www.unfpa.org/sdg

Paying for school The SDG plan faces one big challenge. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the amount of money available to pay for education has declined. Many wealthy countries, including the UK, have imposed ‘austerity’ on their spending for public services like schools. Aid budgets to support poorer countries have also been reduced, although the UK still commits 0.7% of annual GDP to international development. The education budgets of developing countries have also been reduced, for example in Brazil. This means that there’s less money to pay for education, just at the time when the goal for global education is becoming more ambitious. The entire global community needs to increase their funding for education by $39 billion. This is a lot of money. However, in 2013 Oxfam found that companies and wealthy individuals which use tax havens to avoid paying tax, deprived governments worldwide of £100 billion ($124 billion) in taxes. This is enough money to end extreme poverty twice over. Do you think $39 billion a reasonable amount of money for the global community to raise? In 2017 the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the international organisation responsible for supporting education in the world’s poorest countries, will be asking rich countries to increase their contributions and close the funding gap. Send My Friend to School asks you to send messages to your MP which ask the UK government to play their part and increase their investment in education. Just $1 extra spent on education in the world’s poorest countries has benefits worth $10. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started! Image: GCE UK

The Missing Pieces Toilets Trained Teachers Safety from Violence At the beginning of this presentation you thought about what makes your school great. SDG4 aims to make school great for every child in the world. But right now there isn’t enough money to pay for this education. There are missing pieces in the education jigsaw of many countries. Now make your paper school jigsaw. You’ve got to make some tough choices about which pieces to include and which ones to leave out. Will you choose toilets or trained teachers? I’m sure many of the pieces you’ll have to leave out will be vitally important. These are the elements of a great education system which we need extra funding for. Decorate your jigsaw and make it as colourful as possible. Finally, write a message about the choices you had to make and how you felt making those choices. Now it’s time to send your jigsaws on a journey.

Make your voices heard Make your voices heard by ensuring that you send your messages to your local Member of Parliament. You don’t have to take them straight to 10 Downing Street like this group, but it would be great if you do! Following the General Election on 8 June ask your local MP to visit your school to meet you and discuss how to make sure every child in the world receives a good quality education. Or you could arrange to visit your MP at their local constituency office. Whatever you do, please make sure that your MP receives your messages. We want every MP in the UK to hear from young people about Send My Friend to School. Photo: Georgie Scott/GCE UK

THANK YOU! Pamaronkoh Community Primary School, Freetown, Sierra Leone Photo: John McLaverty/Oxfam