When Mandela took assembly

[XXPANTHAXX]

Students joined their hero on stage to campaign for universal
free education. Claire Phipps was with them

Tuesday February 8, 2005
Guardian

Alfie Sadler was not yet born when Nelson Mandela stepped out
of prison 15 years ago this week, but he was in no doubt that
their imminent appearance together on stage at a rally in
Trafalgar Square was a significant moment, for him personally
and for the cause they were there to promote, Making Poverty
History.

"He's a great hero. No matter who you talk to, they all know
Nelson Mandela and what he did," said Alfie. "Everybody wants
to meet him and we three actually have the chance."

The other two were Shetal Patel and Matthew Hector, both 15,
and, like Alfie, pupils at Langdon school in East Ham,
London. In a few hours' time, they would take to the stage to
alert a 20,000-strong crowd to the 100 million children
around the world who do not go to school, and be thanked by
Mandela for their campaigning efforts. In the meantime, on a
drizzly morning that jarred with the African drumming
rehearsal taking place on the steps of the National Gallery,
they were clutching their speeches, stamping their feet
against the cold and giving a very convincing impression of
total calm.

Though, as Shetal pointed out, "we're representing not only
our school, but the whole of the country for the Global
Campaign for Education. So yes, it's quite a big part to
play."

The GCE is a link in the Make Poverty History coalition,
which aims to hold governments to their promises to support
and provide education for all children. Founded in 1999, it
brings together Oxfam, Save the Children, Sightsavers and the
teaching unions. An international pledge for universal free
and compulsory primary education by 2015 looks, on current
projections, unlikely to be met. But these pupils were not
prepared to wait for the target to be missed; they would like
to see governments - and the British government in
particular - get a move on now.

Today, another delegation from Langdon will head to the
Houses of Parliament to spearhead a new campaign, Send My
Friend to School. When the G8 group of leading industrialised
nations meets at Gleneagles in July, under Britain's
leadership, they will be joined by more than a
million "buddies", a paper-chain of cut-outs representing
just a fraction of the children who - for myriad reasons, of
which the nucleus is poverty - are not in school. Pupils in
the UK and in more than 100 countries across the world will
be asked to research the life of a child denied an education
and make a paper buddy to send to world leaders.

Three of these buddies, created by year 7 pupils at Langdon,
were ready to be taken on stage for the Mandela seal of
approval. Alfie, Matthew and Shetal were clued-up on the
reasons why their real-life counterparts were not in the
classroom: "Most of them work"; "They never got the
opportunity to go to school"; "They didn't have a school to
go to".

Vanessa Wiseman is the head of Langdon, the biggest 11-16
comprehensive in the country, with nearly 2,000 pupils and 50
languages spoken. The school was, she stressed, very outward
looking: "Even the younger students are very aware of what's
going on around them and of the need to take action."

Previous work with charities such as ActionAid had earned
them this moment in the spotlight, but, said Wiseman,
engagement with the wider world was not an add-on but a
central part of the school curriculum: "It's citizenship made
active and enjoyable."

Speaking in front of a crowd of thousands would surely go a
long way to lifting citizenship out of the doldrums to which
it was recently consigned by Ofsted, which labelled it the
worst taught subject in secondary schools. As the Langdon
three took to the stage with pupils from Lourdes school in
Glasgow, they were greeted with the second biggest cheer of
the day; the biggest, needless to say, was reserved for the
star turn.

But Alfie and Matthew ran him close - their tactic of
treating the gathering as just "a very big assembly" seemed
to pay off, with not a wobble in evidence. "We have been to
school today and we are going back to school tomorrow," said
Alfie. "Unfortunately, because of poverty, there are 100
million children in the world who don't have the opportunity
to go to school."

Matthew added: "We believe the world should be fair so that
everyone has the same opportunity to learn and have a good
life."

The first part of their duties over, they returned backstage
to a thumbs-up and the sight of Mandela, his wife, Graça
Machel, and an imposing entourage alighting from a fleet of
cars. Bob Geldof said hello. A chair previously plastered
in "do not use" signs was whipped clear for the former South
African president to rest on. The children stared. Everyone
stared.

By the time Mandela headed to the platform to speak,
composure had been regained. Shetal followed him on, and he
gave her a white band - the symbol of the Make Poverty
History campaign - which will also make the journey to
Gleneagles. They all got to shake his hand; from Machel, it
was engulfing hugs all round. Then the entourage was off and
away. It took a while for the children's feet to find the
ground.

"That was amazing. Oh my God. I was shaking," said a sparkly
eyed Shetal. "It was fantastic," added Matthew. "We got our
message across." And Mandela got his across too, not only to
the thousands looped round the fountains but directly, to the
pupils he met.

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great," he told
them. "You can be that great generation. Let your greatness
blossom.

"Of course, the task will not be easy. But not to do this
would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all
humanity to rise up."

To be in Trafalgar Square, the Langdon pupils worked out,
they missed maths, science, business studies and art. But,
even putting Mandela aside (should they ever manage that),
they agreed it didn't matter. After all, they would catch up;
they would be back in school tomorrow.