Biggest Lesson in history! (Global Campaign for Education).

On 9 April 2003, halfway through Global Action Week 2003 (6 to 13 April), over 1.3 million people-students, teachers, celebrities, government officials, community activists- from over a hundred countries converged in universities, schools, community halls, adult education centres and churches to take part in what was going to be "The World's Biggest Lesson". Thus a new world record of the largest simultaneous lesson in history was being set, breaking the record made in the United Kingdom in March 2003, when 28,801 children took part in a language class.

Around the world, lessons were taught simultaneously by luminaries and ordinary people alike--from Sierra Leone's President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to an aspiring 11-year-old girl who sold peanuts after school to support her family in the Gambia. At London's Wembley Grand Hall, schoolchildren were joined by a "East Enders" star, Michelle Collins, girl-bands Charli and Tommi, and television presenter Shavaughn Ruakere. In Paris, UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura presented a lesson to Member States during an executive board meeting in New York, UNICEF Special Representative and singer Angelique Kidjo taught a thirty-minute lesson on girls' education and was joined by Nane Annan, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's wife, and UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

The global event was devoted to raising awareness of the importance of education of girls and women and its direct impact on the health, economic development and poverty reduction of the family. In the words of Doug Willard, President of the Canadian Teachers' Federation, "without educated women, we can never end poverty and hunger, fight disease or build meaningful democracies". The event was organized by the Global Campaign for Education, a worldwide alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which was founded in 1999 by a group of NGOs and teachers' unions, including Education International, Oxfam International, Global March Against Child Labour, Actionaid and national NGO networks from Bangladesh, Brazil and South Africa.

In India, over 200,000 children and adults took part in the event. In Andhra Pradesh (India), children, along with workers from the NGO Sangramitha Service Society, went a step further, visiting old friends who had dropped out of school and asking them to reconsider. Bangladesh had a record turnout, with a confirmed 450,000 participants, including students in 15,000 rural schools.

At the event in New York, Mr. Annan stressed that education is a basic human right. "Fifty-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established that everyone has the right to education. The fact that millions are still deprived of it--most of them girls--should fill us all with shame", the Secretary-General said. "Let this be not only the world's biggest ever lesson, but a lesson that the world will never forget."