1 GOAL: Education for All

1 GOAL is not a fundraising campaign; rather, the focus is on advocacy. A very large global athletic event - the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 2010 World Cup, slated to be held in South Africa, with over half the world watching - is serving as the thematic and logistical organising thrust of 1 GOAL. Footballers (soccer players), FIFA officials, governments, and celebrities are inviting citizens to sign up on the 1 GOAL website to "join a world team of millions around the globe" who will participate in speaking out to demand education for all as a key strategy for helping end poverty. Competitions and interviews involving the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be at the centre of the campaign, which was launched at Wembley Stadium in London, with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, international football stars, GCE personnel, and other prominent supporters in attendance. People were encouraged to follow the launch - and campaigning activities scheduled to take place in over 200 countries up until the FIFA World Cup final - on 1 GOAL's Facebook wall and twitter feed.

The 1 GOAL website features updates on campaign activities and strategies as they develop. By also highlighting the latest football news - e.g., what qualification stage each country in is as the World Cup approaches, ranking tables and scores, etc. - organisers hope to ensure fans they will not miss any of the latest sporting information as they read and learn about how to take action to ensure education for all.

Education, Rights.

In 2000, 164 world governments came together to create the Education for All (EFA) Goals - promising to give everyone a free quality education by 2015. World leaders also committed to the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals that aimed to end poverty by 2015, in part by striving to meet these 2 goals on education: to ensure that all boys and girls complete primary schooling by 2015, and to make sure that girls have the opportunity for education at all levels by 2015. As the halfway mark is being reached, campaign organisers cite the following statistics as indication that much more needs to be done:

• 75 million children are still not enrolled in primary school;
• 33 million children in Africa do not go to school;
• Over one-third of children drop out before completing primary school, and many more leave school having failed;
• There is a global shortage of teachers: 18 million teachers need to be trained and recruited by 2015;
• US$11 billion is needed to give all children a primary education every year; a further US$5 billion would be necessary to educate 12-14 year olds;
• 774 million adults cannot read and write.

Established in 1999, GCE is a network of major non-governmental organisations (NGOs), teachers' unions, and civil society in more than 120 countries working to promote action on making education, free, available, public, and quality for everyone. More than 14 million people took part in GCE's Global Action Week in 2009.

Launched on September 25 2008, the Class of 2015 is made up of GCE, large charities, multi-national companies, governments, senior education advocates, teacher trade unions through Education International, faith leaders, and other supporters of EFA including FIFA officials, the musician Bono, and Sir Bob Geldof.