ATL

1GOAL campaign success

Hundreds of ATL members participated in this year's 1GOAL Send My Friend campaign, making it the biggest to date. More than a million children and 9,000 schools across the UK participated in activities designed to raise awareness of the plight of the world's 75 million children who don't go to school.

More than 90 schools hosted a visit from their local MP that has had a huge impact on parliamentary interest in education internationally.

Students at Victoria Primary in Scotland made colourful paper scarves and met their newly elected MP Pamela Nash. Pamela subsequently asked the Prime Minister a question in Parliament about Send My Friend to School. Her question and David Cameron's answer are shown below.

Pamela Nash MP said: "I am sure that the Prime Minister is aware of the send my friend to school campaign, in which my young constituents at Victoria primary school in Airdrie are involved and about which they will be writing to him this week.

"The campaign aims to ensure that the government direct the £8.5 billion that was committed by the previous Labour government towards universal primary education by 2015. The matter will be discussed on 7 July at the education summit in South Africa, which is tied in with the World Cup. Has the Prime Minister personally spoken to President Zuma and other African leaders about their pledges, and will he confirm that a review of the Department for International Development's funding will not compromise our pledge?"

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "First, I welcome the Honourable Lady following her election; I think that I am right in saying that she is the youngest Member of the House of Commons. She is quite right to talk about the millennium development goals and aid spending.

"It is good that it is common cause across the House of Commons that, despite the difficult decisions that we will have to take, we should meet the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income. We are committed to doing that, which means that we can continue to support the poorest people in the poorest countries. We will be addressing such issues this weekend at the G8 in Canada."

MPs that visited schools participating in the campaign also asked international development questions, participated in debates and even initiated a parliamentary petition.

Congratulations to all the ATL members who ran events at their schools.

You can also support ATL's effort to secure the UK's funding of education internationally by ordering additional copies of our campaign postcard that calls on David Cameron to affirm the UK's existing commitments. Additional copies of the postcard are available for distribution to branches, at events and in workplaces and can be ordered from ATL despatch on 0845 4500 009 quoting product code MF096.