By Clinton Ezeigwe

Imagine you couldn’t read or write. Or worse still, imagine you knew nothing of the world that exists beyond your hometown. For 57 million primary aged children who aren’t in school, there’s no need to imagine-this is their painful reality. Without access to an education, these beautiful children remain voiceless and the cycle of poverty continues.

As a newly-appointed Global Youth Ambassador for A World at School, I want to bring attention to the 57 million children around the world currently being denied their human right to an education.

A world at school is a movement of passionate people who believes that every child no matter where they are from deserves a place at school, and I am joined in this call to action by over 500 other young advocates for global education. Together, we make up the Global Youth Ambassadors group – launched on April 1 2014, by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.

Education is important because it gives children the tools and knowledge they need to develop, grow, learn, and thrive. I believe that education is the only sure way to unlocking the door to each person’s fullest potential. Education is a basic human right. Education sparks wonder and mystery; it honours questions and invites inquiry which is the foundation for peace-building.  A chance to learn-children deserves it and it situates them to embody peace and build strong communities.

As firm believers that education is the answer to the greatest challenges we face as a society, we ask for your help in urging leaders to raise budgets, build schools, train teachers and improve learning for all children.

It has been shown that we could lift more than 170 million people out of poverty simply by teaching every child in low-income countries basic reading skills.

So why are we not making this a reality? Unless we revert current trends, we will not even achieve universal primary education before 2086.

So join A World at School in our campaign to get every child into school and learning by signing up for our regular e-mail updates at www.aworldatschool.org . You’ll be the first to hear about the latest global education news and calls to action. Also, follow us on twitter (@aworldatschool) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/AWorldAtSchool).

Clinton Ezeigwe is a Global Youth Ambassador at A World At School and president at People to People International, Nigeria Chapter. People to People International is an organisation that promotes international understanding and friendship through educational, cultural and humanitarian activities. He is also the Director of Operations at Christian Fellowship And Care Foundation. He became an active member of NDLink in November 2014. He can be reached at ezeclintik@yahoo.com.