Did you know that 58 million children worldwide are not in school? An estimated hundred million more are not learning due to discrimination and other barriers. The recent #UpForSchool petition and campaign, developed by A World At School, has set out to change these figures and improve education for millions of children across the globe.

A World At School advocates that every child has the right to an education. Barriers throughout the world such as early marriage, forced work, war-torn conflicts, exploitation and discrimination prevent children from receiving the education they deserve. The #UpForSchool campaign is dedicated to helping children overcome these barriers.

The petition targets governments, politicians and leaders to make education their number one priority. It strives for progress to the United Nations Millennium Development Goal, which states that all out-of-school children will achieve their right to education by the end of 2015.

A World At School was established in 2013 and has been working toward childhood education ever since. In order to help meet the 2015 deadline, the organization created a 500 day campaign encouraging others to take action. Every 100 days, the group plans to take on more of the key barriers preventing childhood education. The group promotes that “nothing changes without pressure” and that anyone can play a role in the cause by getting involved and signing the petition.

The campaign has also been encouraging young people to join forces and work together for the cause. It’s currently run by over 500 global youth ambassadors in 85 countries. On September 22, a youth rally was held at NYU’s Kimmel Center featuring world leaders from the U.N., A World At School and CNN. The rally was highly successful and hundreds of youth leaders turned up to sign the petition.

#UpForSchool currently has over 16,000 endorsers, and campaigners plan to make it the biggest petition in history. Their current target is over 12 million signatures worldwide. If you would like to get involved, you can sign #UpForSchool at  www.aworldatschool.org/upforschool.

– Meagan Douches

Sources: A World At School, A World At School 2, A World At School 3, Their World, Huffington Post
Photo: Talk Vietnam