MP for West Devon and Torridge Geoffrey Cox visited Mary Tavy and Brentor Community Primary School last week to receive a special message from the children.

Children at the school presented Mr Cox with jigsaw pieces that had messages written on them, highlighting what should be done in every school worldwide.

The exercise was in aid of the ‘Send My Friend To School Campaign’, an initiative of the UK coalition of the global campaign for education, which aims to tackle the global education crisis; 263 million children are out of school, and many of those who are in school are not learning.

The MP read out many of the jigsaw pieces and promised the children he would pass the messages on to the Prime Minister.

On Twitter, Mr Cox said: ‘Really pleased to receive Mary Tavy and Brentor School’s excellent letters and artwork for the “Send My Friend To School Campaign”.’

In 2015, world leaders signed up to a new set of commitments for a better world, to tackle issues such as hunger and poverty. These commitments were made up of 17 sustainable development goals, one of which includes a goal providing education for all, up to the age of 15, by 2030.

This year the campaign was all about finance and how that is a big factor in getting all children into school.

The campaign said that world leaders must do more — at the current rate of progress it would be 2084 before every child was in school, over 50 years later than promised, creating the risk of leaving a whole generation behind.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is an organisation working to ensure quality education for all children, with members in over 80 countries. In the UK the campaign seeks to increase community awareness of the state of education internationally and generate the political will necessary to ensure the UK plays an active and effective part in efforts to secure education for all.

Picture by James Bird