Actress Samantha Bond and Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, went back to the ‘classroom’ on Wednesday 23 April to take part in the World’s Biggest Lesson.

Hundreds of schools around the UK attempted to get into the Guinness Book of Records along with young people in 120 countries who were taught the same ‘core lesson’ simultaneously in two time zones.

The Minister took a lesson in the open air, in an African style classroom, to illustrate how thousands of children have to learn, struggling against the elements and in classes of up to 100 pupils to one teacher. Organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), the lesson aimed to remind world leaders to keep their promise that every child in the world would complete a quality primary education by 2015.

Actress Jan Ravens helped teach the lesson to Douglas Alexander, alongside pupils from Tetherdown Primary School and Highgate Woods School (North London) and Kingsbury High School (Brent). Around the country other MPs and celebrities attended the ‘World’s Biggest Lesson’ in their local schools.

Around the world:

• Grammy award-winning artist Shakira appeared alongside students on Capitol Hill in Washington to lend her support to the campaign.
• Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive her school report card marking her grades on providing education for all.
• In Cambodia, King Sihamoni took part in the World’s Biggest Lesson and was taught by children who've been excluded from education and adult learners.
• In Kenya, the World's Biggest Lesson took place in a Nairobi slum and focused on how to address the needs of those who've been excluded from school following the recent violence.
• In Mozambique, 'Major Aula' (the World's Biggest Lesson) took place in schools nationwide and for some pupils it was their first chance to sit in class, having previously been excluded because of a disability or being orphaned.

Since 2000, millions of schoolchildren all over the world have taken part in the campaign to make sure that the promise that all children get a quality education is not forgotten. As a result, some governments, including the UK, are doing more and the estimate for the numbers of children out of school has fallen from 100 million to 72 million.

Douglas Alexander said: "I’m really looking forward to taking part in the World’s Biggest Lesson. Education is vital in the fight against poverty and it’s inspirational to see so many young people campaigning for all children to go to school. Giving all children an education is within our grasp if the right steps are taken, and this will be a real lesson for the world."

The World’s Biggest Lesson marks the start of Send My Friend ’08. Following this, schoolchildren in the UK will be inviting their MP’s to get creative by completing a ‘missing out’ action card to be part of their school display. The cards will then be sent to the Prime Minister before he flies off to the G8 in Japan at the end of June.

For free resources and more information visit www.sendmyfriend.org

photo : ©Chryssa Panoussiadou/ ActionAid