Global Action Week on Education - World's Biggest Lesson
23 April 2008 (Updated 25 April)
 Image courtesy of Kerstin Hacker/Sightsavers International
On
the morning of Wednesday 23 April, the World's Biggest Lesson took place as part
of the Global Campaign for Education's Global Action Week. Involving schoolchildren,
teachers, campaigners and politicians from over 100 countries, this aimed to remind world leaders to keep
their promises on getting all children into primary school by 2015.
With a global class size of 7.5 million, Wednesday's event broke the world
record for the largest simultaneous lesson in history. The country that recorded
the highest number of participants was Bangladesh - 2.5 million people from
25,000 different locations across the country. Millions also joined from
Vietnam, and a million showed their support in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories.
A taste of outdoor learning
In London, Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander
took part from an African-style classroom set up outdoors near the Houses
of Parliament. A hundred children, from two local schools, sat on the floor on
rush mats to participate in the interactive lesson.
The classroom was designed to demonstrate how, in Africa, classes are often
held outside under trees, with only one teacher for 100 pupils. As Douglas
Alexander commented: "This is an opportunity to reflect in a small way some of
the challenges we face in education in Africa. I recently visited an
extraordinary school in Uganda with the Prime Minister that DFID has funded. I
went into a classroom with children desperate to learn and teachers desperate to
teach but where there were more children than you would expect to teach."
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Learning about education around the world
 Image courtesy of Kerstin Hacker/Sightsavers International
Joining
Douglas Alexander for teaching duties was Jan Ravens, from TV's Dead Ringers and
Spitting Image, with Comic Relief's Jonathan Smith serving as head teacher for
the morning. Pupils were asked what they thought made a good education - things
like a decent teacher, shelter, books, equipment and support from friends. They
then looked at the opposites - no classroom, only basic shelter, a shortage of
teachers, no books and classes of 100.
Dylan from Year 7 at Highgate Woods School took part in the lesson. He said:
"I learnt about how people go to school around the world. I feel that it is
unfair that lots of people don't get to go to school and that the ones that do
go don't get shelter or enough attention. There have been improvements since
last year but there is still slow progress. I think ministers need to invest
more money."
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An inspirational event
 Image courtesy of Kerstin Hacker/Sightsavers International
Although
the weather conditions left the outdoor classroom in a very wet state, the
enthusiasm of all of those who joined in couldn't be dampened.
"This was an inspirational event," said Douglas Alexander, "drawing on the
inspiration and commitment of our young people to say they want other young
people around the world to have the same opportunities as we have in Britain."
With 72 million children around the world literally without a class to go to,
the World's Biggest Lesson was a timely reminder of the need for more progress
on education.
Learn more about what DFID is doing to improve education in the world's
poorest countries:
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