Global Campaign for Education gets people to Join Up

There are over 80 million children globally who are missing out on school. Two thirds of them are girls. 46 million of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Global Campaign for Education is working to change this. The campaign aims to put pressure on G8 world leaders to keep the promise they made in 2000 of basic primary education for all children. The Global Campaign for Education is asking people to Join Up and add their voice by signing an online petition in the form of a human chain – over 100,000 people from around the world have joined this already.

Each year of primary education increases a girl’s earning power by up to 20%, and the children of educated women are 50% more likely to live past the age of 5. However, more than half of the 80 million children who are currently missing out on school are girls, and two thirds of the one billion illiterate adults in the world are women.

Education can have a dramatic effect on the health of a nation too. Girls and boys who complete primary school are 50% less likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS, meaning that 7 million cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade if all children received a primary education.

In 2000, world leaders agreed, as part of the Millennium Development Goals, that all children have the right to an education. They promised to make sure that all children across the world receive a primary education by 2015. The Global Campaign for Education Global Campaign for Education aims to make sure these leaders keep this promise.

They are asking everyone in the UK and all over the world to get involved in the Join Up campaign by adding themselves to the online chain.

The chain petition calls on world leaders to keep their promises, and it is due to be presented to world leaders at the G8 summit meeting in June 2007. The summit will be chaired by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and key discussions will take place there. By Joining Up, people can show their support for the campaign and show the G8 leaders that their promises must be kept.

About The Global Campaign for Education

The Global Campaign for Education is a coalition of NGOs, unions and charities in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the UK this includes Comic Relief, Oxfam, VSO, Action Aid, Sitesavers, all UK Teacher Unions and over 10,000 schools.

The GCE promote education as a basic human right, and work with the public to put pressure on governments and the international community to fulfil their promise to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people. The GCE believe that quality education for all is achievable, and that the immense costs of failure, far far out weights any cost. The GCE also believes that education is key to ending.

For information on the Global GCE go to www.campaignforeducation.org

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Global Campaign for Education PR Contact:
Sophie King
Comic Relief
5th Floor
89 Albert Embankment
London
SE1 7TP
0207 820 5555
joinupquery@comicrelief.com