Send My Friend to School campaign

Annette Brooke MP has delivered a very colourful petition to Prime Minister David Cameron MP after she went back to school at St Catherines’s RC Primary School in Colehill to hear from pupils about the need for 1.7 million more professional teachers to get every child worldwide into primary school. The children made brightly coloured and symbolic cut-out teachers as part of the Send My Friend to School campaign, which is being organised by the Global Campaign for Education UK.

United Nations’ estimates show that there is a global shortage of 1.7 million teachers, with 1 million professional teachers needed in Africa alone. In the year 2000, world leaders made a promise that every child would receive a quality primary education by 2015. However, there are still over 60 million children missing out on even a basic primary education, with millions more struggling to learn in crowded classes and with unqualified teachers.

Annette said: “I was pleased to deliver the colourful and inspiring teachers the children from St Catherines’s RC Primary School had made to the Prime Minister. I have visited a number of schools in Africa and I have seen for myself the very large class sizes, perhaps up to 100 children with one teacher, but amazingly motivated children wanting to learn as much as they could. The Send My Friend to School campaign is a win/win situation with English children appreciating their own school setting and raising awareness of the needs of children across the world.