Global Action Week in Poland!

Global Campaign for Education

The Global Action Week organised by the Global Campaign for Education took place on 19th-25th April 2010. The aim of this initiative was to persuade world leaders to support Education for All and to draw their attention to education financing.  The sloagn adopted for the national highlight event wass „Goal 1: Education for All”  with the sub slogan added „Fund it NOW!”.

Much to our regret, this year’s edition of the Global Action Week failed to attract attention of numerous Polish schools (contrary to last year’s results) on account of the news informing about the tragic crash of the presidential plane flying to Smolensk to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Katyń massacre.

Few Polish schools which joined the global action offered their pupils a number of activities. The most important event was the World Biggest Lesson devoted to the questions of education access and education financing, which took place in all schools on 20th April. Some teachers included the aspect of education for all in their classes all week long. Furthermore, pupils could learn about the education in Africa and the need to increase the expenditure on education.   

Considering the fact that the celebration of this year’s Global Action Week coincided with the preparations for the World Cup 2010 taking place for the first time in history in Africa, football stars in more than 100 countries in the world joined the Global Action Week in support of public education. Polish schools also contacted local sportsmen to invite them to meetings with pupils. Their guests delivered speeches about football players’ achievements and the role of education in the lives of sportsmen. Moreover, there were also mettings organised with young football players and their coaches. Physical education teachers prepared presentations on olympic champions. There were football history contests held as well.

On the occasion of the Global Campaign for Education schools also prepared artistic programmes including visual exhibitions on education and performances with the participation of pupils. There were also artistic contests organised, e.g. „My dream school”. The aspect of education and education financing was included in classroom newsletters. Schools saw to the contact with the representatives of local authorities responsible for financing education at a local level who were invited to take part in the debate on problems faced by local schools in the field of school funding. The meetings turned out to be an excellent opportunity to present achievements of particular schools and to discuss  school budgets. Thanks to such initiatives schools proved the importance of investment in education.