Kelly Tolhurst MP has presented tens of petitions on behalf of the pupils at Balfour Junior Academy to the Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt MP, calling for all children being given the right and chance to go to school.
Send My Friend to School is run by the UK coalition of the Global Campaign for Education, which campaigns within the UK to increase community awareness of the state of education internationally. They highlight that world leaders signed up to a new set of commitments in 2015 aiming for a better world to tackle issues such as hunger and poverty. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a successor to the Millennium Development Goals and they include a goal of providing education for all, up to the age of 15, by 2030.
That 124 million children are out of school around the world (59 million children of primary school age and 65 million children of lower secondary school age) is a global concern, and one Kelly feels fellow developed nations have the capability and responsibility to address if we are to cultivate prosperous relationships with these developing nations. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that a further 250 million are not learning the basics, due to poor quality of education or early drop out from school.
After presenting the petition Kelly said,
“I am touched that our own young people in Rochester and Strood find it as saddening as I do that huge numbers of children are still unable to access education in some parts of the world.
“Our local school children have gone to great effort to put together their creative messages to the Secretary of State and I was delighted to personally hand them over.
“There are still too many unfortunate reasons why children have been unable to access education globally, but each and every one of them deserve the opportunity to achieve their full potential in life wherever they might reside, and I am pleased to support this campaign.”
