1. Every child needs a teacher
Imagine school without a teacher.
Around the world millions of children are missing out on school because they don’t have a teacher. And millions more who are enrolled in school learn in overcrowded classrooms because there aren’t enough teachers to teach them.
This assembly is about why children don’t go to school and what you can do to help make sure every child has a teacher

2. How many children around the world don’t go to school?
How many children around the world do you think don’t go to school?
Is it
30 million?
60 million?
90 million?
Before I ask you to answer here’s a clue. Out of the three choices, the number of children out of school is closest to the total population of Britain and Ireland.
The number of out of school children is around 60 million. The population of Britain and Ireland is around 68 million.
There are many reasons why children don’t go to school. As we’ve learnt already there often aren’t enough teachers. Frequently there also aren’t enough classrooms or resources. Many children live a long distance from the nearest school and it’s too far to travel. Lots of schools lack basic facilities such as clean water and toilets. Usually these reasons happen together at the same time, with the result that the quality of education is low. For families who are poor, it can make more sense for children to work than to attend school, where learning or even getting to class every morning is a big challenge. Or parents may be unable to afford the costs of their children attending school. Finally, in some places, particular groups of children, such as girls or ethnic minorities, face specific barriers to getting an education.
This is Fatima. She is 10 years old and lives in Nigeria. Her family doesn’t have enough money to pay for school uniform, books and other materials. So Fatima doesn’t go to school. Instead she helps her mum with household chores and sells onions outside her house. But Fatima’s family would like her to go to school. Fatima’s mother Hadiza says, “if my children become educated I think their future will be better”.
Photo: Akinkugbe Okikiola/ActionAid
How many children around the world don’t go to school?

3. How many children around the world don’t go to school?
1 in 4
Every morning Fatima watches her friends leave their homes for school.
As we’ve just seen, the reasons why a child doesn’t go to school are complicated and there’s usually more than just one. But a global shortage of teachers is a very important reason.
Fatima is from Nigeria in West Africa. Nigeria has 600,000 primary school teachers. Nigeria needs 200,000 more teachers by 2015 if every Nigerian child is to go to school. So, if you do the maths, one in four Nigerian teachers is ‘missing’. However the number of teachers in Nigeria has been going down. Nigeria had fewer teachers in 2010 than in 2005.
Photo: Akinkugbe Okikiola/ActionAid
How many children around the world don’t go to school?

4. How many children around the world don’t go to school?
1 in 18
However the challenges don’t end once a child is enrolled in school and has a place in class.
How many children are there in your class? I’m sure the answer is around 30.
What do you think learning is like in this classroom? The global shortage of teachers means overcrowded classrooms. In Suleman Tanko Laurel Primary School in Nigeria, there are 46 children in one class. However because there are not enough teachers, two classes are taught together which means over 90 children are being taught by only one teacher.
If every child is to attend school and receive a good education there has to be enough teachers. There is a shortage of 1.7 million teachers around the world. This means 1 in 18 teachers is ‘missing’ around the world. If all the missing teachers stood in a line and joined hands, the line would stretch all the way from London to Moscow.
Photo: Chris Morgan/GCE/ActionAid
How many children around the world don’t go to school?

5. In the UK, how much money do you think the government spends on educating a primary school child per year? £750? £2500? £5000? £10000?
Teachers and school facilities cost money. So how much money do you think the government here in the UK spends per year to educate each primary school child?
The answer isn’t straightforward because the amount varies between schools. However the government spends between £3,000 and £8,000 per primary school child, depending on the school, the age of the child and the local area. You might question whether this wide variation in spending is actually fair.
(Figures for cited in

6. Let’s visit Malawi in southern Africa
How much money do you think Malawi spends on the education of each primary school child?
Let’s visit Malawi in southern Africa. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa.
How much do you think the government of Malawi spends on each primary schoolchild per year? Remember the UK spends between £3,000 and £8,000 per child per year.
Is it
£50
£150
£500
£1,000
In fact the government of Malawi spends £34 on a primary child per year.
Even if many poor countries could afford to spend more on education, they still wouldn’t have sufficient money to provide a quality education for all their children. In these circumstances the richer countries have agreed to support poor countries with overseas aid. This aid partnership helps to top up poor countries’ education budgets and improve the education they provide for their children. As countries become richer they should be able to invest more of their own money in education. However this doesn’t always happen. For example a middle income country like India still has millions of children out of school, a teacher shortage, large classes and poor school facilities. Countries like India could do better.
Photo: Paul Wu/ActionAid
For data on India see

7. So what is it like to go to school in Malawi?
Many classes are taught outdoors because of a shortage of classrooms. This may be enjoyable for a short time if the weather is pleasant, but it becomes very difficult to learn if the weather is poor.
In Malawi, there are too few teachers and the teachers there are are not equally spread across the country. In some districts there are 36 children per teacher while in others there are more than 120 children per teacher. This leads to very large class sizes like this one.
In the UK teachers must have a university degree followed by one year of teacher training and further ‘on the job’ learning. But in countries like Malawi, Ethiopia, Honduras and Sierra Leone less than half of all teachers have received any training at all.
Photo: Karen Garvin/ActionAid

8. EVERY CHILD NEEDS A TEACHER AND YOU CAN HELP
Now you’ve heard what it’s like around the world we’re asking you to speak out for the right of every child to have an education.
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) unites children and their teachers in more than 100 countries around the world.
Each year millions of people take part in Global Campaign for Education campaigns. They remind world leaders of a promise that they made in 2000 that all children would have go to school by 2015.
This year we’d like your help by reminding world leaders that every child needs a teacher.

9. How many children around the world don’t go to school?
We’d like your help to remind world leaders to keep their promise that all children could go to school by making your ideal teacher.
Think about the qualities or skills that you admire in a great teacher. What does your teacher do to make lessons interesting and fun? And don’t forget the big question – why do we need teachers?
When you’ve thought about it, design your ideal teacher figure. We have some ideas to get you started. Or you could make it personal by decorating your ideal teacher with words, collage and drawings
Photo: GCE UK
How many children around the world don’t go to school?

10. How many children around the world don’t go to school?
Then we want you to send your ideal teachers on a journey
Do this by sending your messages to where they will have influence, to your MP. Write to your MP and ask her or him to pass your ideal teachers on to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can influence world leaders to highlight the importance of education. The UK is a major donor of aid investment in education and has a big say in how money for education is spent in the countries where children are missing out on school.
You could go one step further by organising an event in your school and inviting your MP to attend. This will give you the opportunity to make your message more personal and get the local media involved. Last year 100 MPs (that’s around one in six) attended school events.
Many schools even took their messages straight to the Government. Here, International Development Minister Alan Duncan meets students from Warriner School, Oxfordshire.
Photo: Lucy Colbeck/Oxfam
How many children around the world don’t go to school?

11. Thank you! www.sendmyfriend.org
You’ve heard some of the reasons why 60 million children around the world don’t have a teacher. And you’ve heard what you can do to help make a difference.
The next step is to ask your teacher to log on to and register for your school to participate in Every Child Needs A Teacher. You’ll receive a dvd and resources pack to help you get started.
Thank you for listening and I wish you every success with your campaign