ISLAMABAD, April 10: A record 60,000 students, teachers and parents participated in the world’s biggest lesson as part of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) activity held all over the world, a press release issued by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) on Thursday said.

In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, over 4,000 students from Quaid- i-Azam University, Froebel’s International School, City School, Girls Guide, Roots Montessori and High School, Sunshine School and Poor Patients Welfare Society participated in the lesson held at 9am, 1pm and 7pm.

In Punjab, over 30,000 and in Peshawar over 25,000 people took part in the world’s biggest lesson. SPARC’s Child Rights Committees working at the grassroots level mobilized schools, NGOs and other like-minded organizations in the activity to carry the message to maximum number of people in the country.

Before and after the lesson, students and teachers initiated discussions on the subject reflecting on the deplorable gender disparity found among schoolgoing girls and boys in the country. “Even in our class, there are more boys and less girls”, remarked a class 2 student of Froebel’s International School.

Worldwide, there are over 100 million out-of-school children and 862 million illiterate adults, majority of them girls and women. In Pakistan, there are over 70 million illiterate adults with 70 per cent women, and over 0.4 million girls of schoolgoing age are out of schools.

In 2001-02, only 49 per cent boys and 27 per cent girls completed their primary education. The number of women teachers is only 36 per cent, and Pakistan spends only 2.2 per cent of its GDP on education.

The campaign received an overwhelming response with registered participants rising from 250,000 to more than 750,000 worldwide over the past few days.