Girls' Education: The Biggest Lesson Ever - Global

This initiative drew on people's natural competitiveness and desire to be part of an historic event that supports a cause. The previous record for the largest lesson, according to the Guiness Book of Records, was held by the UK for a language class given in March 2002 in which 28,801 children took part.

The importance and benefits of educating girls and women was the subject of the lesson that participants followed for the new record attempt. At UNESCO Headquarters, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed participants, opening with the statement, "To educate girls is to reduce poverty. That is the lesson that unites us today." The event was led by UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and Nane Annan. Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura opened the 30-minute lesson, which was then given by UNICEF Special Representative and singer from Benin Angelique Kidjo. 350 children from schools in New York City and many UN staff members attended this part of the attempt.

To break the record, simultaneous lessons took place in countries worldwide. At least 450,000 children and adults across Bangladesh took part; the national education campaign in Brazil reached twice its expectation of 20,000 participants. In the UK, schools minister David Miliband taught the lesson at an east London comprehensive. That afternoon, the schoolchildren gathered to be taught the lesson and hear 'girl power' music acts. In Zimbabwe and Ghana, the lesson opened with several personal testimonials from 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. 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.

Girls, Education, Rights.

According to the Global Monitoring Report 2002: Education for All - Is the world on track?, women make up two-thirds of the world's 861 million illiterate adults; of the estimated 115.4 million out-of-school children, 56% are girls. In April 2000, the 164 countries attending the World Education Forum in Dakar set a goal of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. The report signals steady progress throughout the 1990s in getting more girls into school, but finds that only 86 out of 153 countries for which data were available had achieved gender parity. The report concludes that of the remaining 67, only 18 have a good chance of attaining this goal, but not before 2015, unless a major effort is made.

This event was held as part of the celebrations for Education For All (EFA) Week (April 6-13), which is organised by GCE (a coalition of aid agencies, non-government organisations, child rights activists, and teachers' and public sector unions operating in 180 countries that support achievement of universal basic education).