On April 21, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, and Grammy award-winning artist Shakira will participate in a media conference call to discuss the state of global education and out-of-school children in developing countries. This corresponds with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) Action Week that will take place from April 21-27, 2008. Brown, Zoellick, and Shakira will join with GCE's coalition in 120 countries to call on government leaders to support a basic education for all children, including the 72 million young children and 226 million older youths who are out of school around the world.

Speakers:
-- Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, United Kingdom
-- Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank
-- Shakira, Honorary Chairperson, GCE Action Week
-- Gene Sperling, Chair, U.S. Chapter of GCE

Shakira will also appear in Washington, DC on April 22, with Members of Congress as well as students from across the United States to raise awareness for the bipartisan Education for All Act of 2007 (EFA). The purpose of the EFA Act is to "ensure that the U.S. provides the resources and leadership to
ensure a successful international effort to provide all children with a quality basic education." It calls for $1 billion for bilateral global basic education investment for FY 2008, scaling up to $3 billion by 2012. The EFA Act requires the President to develop a comprehensive integrated strategy for the United States government to follow in working to reach the 2015 goal of universal access to education for all children.

Action Week will also include the "World's Biggest Lesson" on April 23, when millions of children worldwide will attempt to break the world record for the largest lesson ever through learning and teaching a curriculum about the denial of quality education to tens of millions of poor children.

Global Campaign for Education (GCE)
The Global Campaign for Education, founded in 1999, brings together major nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and teachers' unions in more than 120 countries. GCE promotes access to education as a basic human right and raises public awareness to create the political will for governments and other leaders in the international community to fulfill their promises to provide at
least a free, public basic education for all children.

www.campaignforeducation.org.

The U.S. Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education is a broad-based coalition of more than 30 non-governmental and religious organizations, teachers unions, foundations, and child advocates to promote the cause of universal basic education in the world's poorest nations. The GCE is also well-placed to raise the profile of other goals pertinent to universal education, such as pre-school education, prevention of abusive child labor, the inclusion of children with disabilities and special challenges, and efforts to close the digital divide.

The U.S. Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education includes the support of organizations such as: Basic Education Coalition (BEC), RESULTS, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), National Peace Corps Association, Global Kids, Global AIDS Alliance, Mercy Corps, CARE, Save the Children, ONE campaign, National Peace Corps Association, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and Teach for America.

www.campaignforeducationusa.org.

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