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We did it! Over 1 million people join the Big Lesson
We did it! Over 1 million people join the Big Lesson
From the normally sober and highbrow surroundings of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where the Director General presented the lesson to member states during the course of an official Executive Board meeting, Teresa Murtagh wrote: "We had great fun at our event yesterday. People genuinely enjoyed it. And that was the surprise."
Numerically speaking, Bangladesh has emerged as the biggest star of a very big show, with at least 450,000 children and adults across the country taking part, including students in at least 15,000 BRAC schools. NGOs in India also achieved at least double their original target of 100,000 participants and the national education campaign in Brazil reached twice its expectation of 20,000 participants.
Fax machines at the GCE's Brussels office were so busy that they ran out of ink, as completed validation forms began to flood in. The GCE asks for your patience and persistence as we set up systems for dealing with these unexpected and amazing numbers. We need ALL of those forms in, either directly to us in Brussels or to a local GCE member organisation involved in coordinating national events, before we can officially set a new record!
Lesson brings home the power of education
Beyond the drama of sheer numbers, there were also some very poignant moments yesterday. In Zimbabwe and Ghana, CAMA opened the Lesson with personal testimonials from articulate young women of the same ages from similar backgrounds - except that some had had the chance to finish their education, while others had been forced to drop out. Their moving stories illustrated better than a dozen lessons the saying of Nelson Mandela: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
In a small village in Andhra Pradesh, India, children from the government school, together with workers from Sangramitha Service Society (a local NGO) followed up the Lesson by visiting the houses of some of their friends and peers who had been forced to drop out. They discussed with the children's parents what they had just learned in the lesson, speaking of the importance of education for a better future.
Nagamani of standard 7 has not been to school for the last month. Her mother is ill and there is no one else to do the domestic work. Nagamani is now occupied with looking after her one-year-old sister, four-year-old brother and her sick mother. She does all the domestic chores like cooking, cleaning, washing, serving and nursing. The children persuaded Nagamani's mother to let her return to school in time for the exams. (Read more at:www.netaid.org/campaigns/actionweek
We can't stop here, says GCE chair
GCE Chairperson Kailash Satyarthi congratulated everyone on their achievement and thanked them for their passionate support for the cause of girls' education, but reminded activists and educators that much remains to be done.
"For every one person who took part in the World's Biggest Lesson on the 9th of April," he said, "there are another one hundred children who were not in school yesterday, and who will not be in school any day at all, until we convince our leaders to invest more in good quality education and make schools free for all."
Satyarthi said that the lively discussion, fun and fellowship that participants enjoyed yesterday stood in stark contrast to the experience of 115 million out of school children, the majority of them girls, who never get the chance to debate ideas or experience the excitement of learning.
Satyarthi urged teachers, students, and civic groups everywhere to keep up the campaign to make education a right and not a privilege for all the world's girls and boys. As an immediate follow-up, the GCE will be launching an e-mail petition and letter-writing action calling on the leaders of the world's richest countries to increase their aid for education. Watch this space!
GCE also appeals to everyone who is participating in the Action Week to send photos and stories about the Biggest Lesson and about all of the other wonderful events that are taking place throughout this week. Watch the following websites as the photos that you send us start appearing:
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