We involved girls from one Roman Catholic, one Muslim and one secular school in the campaign for girls' education. We brought students from the three schools down to the Labour Party conference, to quiz ministers on girls' access to education in the developing world. Education was used as a common cause for the students to unite around.

Girls' education

Getting as many girls into school world-wide is one of the Millennium Development Goals and is recognised as vital to effective development. The UN countries agreed to achieve this goal by 2005, but although some progress has been made, the target has been missed in more than 70 countries. Around 60 million girls are out of primary school world-wide. Save the Children has been campaigning hard to make sure that the missed target is not forgotten and to raise awareness of the issue.

Project process

We ran workshops in the schools before the event, to teach the students about barriers to education in the developing world. The activities prompted comparisons with their own education and attitudes. The students prepared questions to ask Ministers Gareth Thomas and Baroness Scotland. They were encouraged to think through their own solutions to the problems they identified.

Download the Schools Workshop Plan >>

On the day of the event, we ran role play activities before the ministers arrived. These explored the issues further and ensured that students from the different schools got to know each other. Many of the participants stated in the evaluation forms that meeting each other had been the best part of the day!

The students asked some tough questions of the Ministers, raising issues of discrimination and the right balance between helping those abroad and those in the UK. The students were very engaged in the issue of girls education and quickly got to grips with the complexities of the issue.

Evaluation

We hope that the project may lead to further co-operation between the schools in the future, as the students valued the opportunity to work together and the teachers were able to talk together at the event. They were all enthusiastic about getting involved in a similar project next year.

The theme of girls' education was useful in that it allowed the participants from different schools to get to know each other through debating an issue that they all felt strongly about. They were able to listen to and agree with each other and see how similar their views are. The evaluation forms showed that they all agreed that it was an engaging issue to have chosen.

Project type

• Interfaith

Region

• London