Watch the World's Biggest Lesson video from the Global Campaign for Education:

Featuring Graça Machel, Human Rights Activist and wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, and Youssou N'Dour, famous Senegalese musician, speaking about the importance of education for all.

To make the case for achieving the Millennium Development Goal and Education for All goal of giving every child in the world the chance to go to school and receive a quality education by 2015, GCE Action Week this year will seek to break the world record for the Largest Simultaneous Lesson. This event is taking place on April 23rd in over 100 countries – and you can be part of it!

Background on the World’s Biggest Lesson: Before the Global Action week in 2003, the record for the largest simultaneous lesson was 28,801 children, set by the United Kingdom.  On April 9, 2003, the Global Campaign for Education shattered that record when at 8am GMT 530,773 students from 32 countries, including Denmark, Nigeria, Senegal, and Slovenia participated in the same lesson on Education for All at the exact same time.  An estimated 2 million young people around the world took part in Global Action Week activities that year. 

2003 Highlights from around the world include:

• Bangladesh had the highest country turn-out with over 450,000 participants, including 15,000 from rural schools.
• In India, where over 200,000 children and adults took part, students also visited friends who had dropped out of school to persuade them to return. 
• In New York, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, “Let this be not only the world’s biggest ever lesson, but a lesson that the world will never forget.”  
• Romania expected 10,000 students to participate but on April 9th, over 40,000 took part in the Biggest Lesson. 
• The US GCE participated in Action Week with a highlight event featuring Mia Hamm and other women soccer stars helping to lead the lesson in Washington DC public school classrooms.

2008 – The Global Campaign for Education breaks the world record for the World's Biggest Lesson!  Globally, over 7.5 million children, adults, teachers, community activists, and campaigners from 100 countries took part in the lesson to learn about the importance of ensuring that every child and adult has the opportunity to receive a quality education.

Check out World's Biggest Lesson highlights from across the US»