It was back to school last Friday as I spent the morning at Isambard Community School where I met with the new team in charge, put on an assembly for year 9 pupils, chatted with the School Council and joined a class to support their campaign for global education.
Election fever was rife in the year 9 assembly as we put on our own Isambard School General Election. Pupils were selected based on an issue that was important to them, which they then had to champion and defend in front of their peers. Tricky questions were asked as pupils posed as the media and the electorate, whilst I even tried to do my best Paxman impersonation! The pupil’s chosen to stand on their issues were incredibly impressive as they came up with reasoned arguments as to why their priorities were important. I finished the assembly in complete confidence of the future of our democracy!
After that it was time to meet with senior students on the School Council for a Q&A session where we discussed in detail the ‘behind the scenes in the House of Commons’ programme which had aired the previous evening. It was really great to engage with the next generation of young adults and really pleasing to hear that there are still a number of young people engaged and interested in Politics. Although it was interesting to hear that they still consider 18 as the most appropriate voting age, despite most of them being younger!
The final stop of the visit was to join in with a lesson on the global campaign for education, something that Isambard pupils are raising awareness of through the ‘send my friend to school’ campaign. As the former chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education, I was keen to get involved and support the pupils with their campaign. As a result, I have promised to deliver a letter directly to the Prime Minister which has been signed by 365 of the pupils calling on him to help keep Global Education at the top of the international agenda.
Across the world there are still 58 million children out of school. This number has halved since 2000 when the campaign first started, but it is still way too high. I passionately believe that education is the key for people to unlock their potential and give themselves a better quality of life. The future prosperity of our world relies on a highly skilled and trained generation of young people, who all have the right to a decent education. I am proud that pupils at Isambard are leading the way in campaigning for this issue to remain at the top of the political agenda.
