10 DOSTNING STREET LONDON SW1A2AA
THE PRIMEMINISTER
30 July2013
DearChildren
Thankyou for askingyour MP, the Right HonourableCarolineFlint to sendme your paperteachers.I am very impressedby the concernthat you have shown for the education of children in poor countries. Your fantastic teachers your enthusiasm demonstrate for the campaign. There are still 57 million children aroundthe world that cannotgo to school. This is a tragedyas educationprovideschildrenwith the best way to improve their own lives and the lives of others around them in their community. UltimatelyI believeeducationis a right and shouldbe availableto everyone. The UK Governmentis doing all that it can to help childrenin poor countriesto go to schooland to be ableto learneffectivelywhen they are there. Becausethe Governmenthas kept its promises about overseasaid, including the vital commitmentto spend0.1% of our country'sincomeon aid, we can makea real difference. We are currentlysupporting5.9 million children- 2.8 million of them girls - to go to primaryschoolin poor countries.Over the last few years UK supporthas benefitednearly2 million poor childrenin schoolin Pakistan and made sure they got the textbooksthey neededso they could get a decent education- the sort of educationwe take for srantedherein the UK. It is particularlyimportantthat girls are ableto go to schoolin poor countriesas often they more likely than boys to be deniedan education.To tacklethis, we haveset up a special'Girls' EducationChallenge'programmewhich will help the poorestgirls who currently do not get any support to be able to go to school. We will work with businesses and charitiesto find new and effective waysto educateup to an additionalmillion of the world's poorestgirls by 2016.
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Of course,gettinga goodeducationis all abouthavinggoodteachers. We have promisedto train morethan 190,000teachers to help childrenlearn. Improving the quality of learning as well as increasingthe quantity of teachersis very importantso that all childrenwho do go to schoolcan learn to read and write and develop other skills. We have already helped to recruit 34,000 more teachersand supportedimprovementsto the examsystemin Punjab. I would like to assureyou that we are working very hard,with others,to deliver a betterfuture for every child on our planet. Thank you for taking the time to write so passionatelyabout this very importantissueand for recognisingthe differenceeducationcanmaketo children'slives.
Yourssincerely
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HatchellWood PrimarySchool