12851/01JAMES Gray and Michael Ancram were among 150 MPs who returned to school last Friday for a valuable lesson from the youngest members of their constituency.

They were taking part in the first MPs Back to School Day, which forms part of Global Campaign for Education's annual week of action.

It involved pupils pressing their Members of Parliament to help get an education for the 100 million children around the world who cannot go to school.

The week of action took place exactly four years after 182 governments, including the UK, signed the "Education for All" commitment to achieve primary education for all by 2015 and equal enrolment for girls and boys in primary and secondary education by 2005.

But as the children of Ivy Lane Primary School, Chippenham, pointed out to Mr Gray, both these targets will be missed and it will be 150 years before all the world's children have the opportunity to go to school.

Kim Spencer, head of Year 6 at Ivy Lane School, said: "The children performed a number of sketches representing families in Guatemala and Indonesia and recited poems about how important education has been to them.

"They also showed Mr Gray a Tree Of Hope they had made with leaves filled in by every child and adult in the school, saying why education was so important.

"We also had a question and answer session with Mr Gray and he stayed for lunch and mixed with all the children it was a lovely day."

Devizes MP Michael Ancram also visited pupils at John Bentley.

He talked to an assembly of sixth formers about his role as an MP, the importance of voting and the global situation of education.

Assistant head Juliet McKie said: "It went brilliantly. He was talking about some of the issues in Afghanistan and Zimbabwe and the other places he had visited. The pupils realised how exciting his job was and all the places he had been to.

"By the end they all wanted to be shadow foreign secretary."

The students then questioned Mr Ancram about global education and what the Government could do to improve access for others.

This was followed by a presentation by 20 pupils on their international experiences on school trips to Germany and America. Mr Ancram then quizzed the students in return.

"It was a two-pronged approach that covered the importance of voting and also global education and how lucky we are," said Mrs McKie.

Mr Ancram also met three Indian visitors at the school, who felt very privileged to meet him. They are teachers at a school in Bangalore, India, which is linked with John Bentley through a series of educational programmes.

Roger James, of Oxfam South West, which is running the initiative, said: "Rich countries promised that no countries seriously committed to education for all will be allowed to fail because of a lack of funding.

"They have reneged on this promise. Just £3 billion extra a year would enable all the world's children to go to school about the same amount as we spend in Britain every year on hairdressing and beauty treatment."

For information on the campaign visit www.campaignforeducation.org