Boris Johnson has pledged £430 million in aid over five years to help get more than a billion of the world’s most vulnerable children into school.
But campaigners said the money falls far short of what was required and criticised the “half measures” offered by the Prime Minister.
Johnson made the promise as G7 leaders gathered in Cornwall to discuss the world’s recovery from Covid-19.
Downing Street said the pandemic has caused an unprecedented global education crisis, with 1.6 billion children around the world out of school at its height with girls the worst affected.
The European Commission has already promised 700 million euro to the Global Partnership for Education fund while Italy has pledged 25 million euro (£21.5 million) and other G7 nations are also expected to contribute.
The Prime Minister said: “The best way we can lift countries out of poverty and lead a global recovery is by investing in education and particularly girls’ education."
“It is a source of international shame that every day around the world children bursting with potential are denied the chance to become titans of industry, scientific pioneers or leaders in any field, purely because they are female, their parents’ income or the place they were born.
“I am calling on other world leaders, including those here at the G7, to also donate and put us firmly on a path to get more girls into the classroom, address the terrible setback to global education caused by coronavirus and help the world build back better.”
However, Rose Caldwell, chief executive of children’s charity Plan International UK, said: “If the Government wants to be taken seriously as a global education leader and persuade other governments to step up, it must increase its pledge and urgently reverse the cuts to overseas aid; otherwise, millions of girls around the world could see their chance for an education lost forever.”
Johnson said the G7 must learn from the mistakes of the pandemic as he predicted the leading economies would “bounce back” from the Covid-19 recession.
As the Prime Minister and Carrie Johnson met leaders as they arrived at the summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, and posed for a “family photograph” ahead of their discussions, Johnson said the leading democracies should also avoid the errors that followed the 2008 financial crash and ensure the recovery helped all parts of society.
The G7 nations will promise a billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine to help poorer countries tackle the pandemic, with Johnson promising at least 100 million surplus doses from the UK over the coming year.
The summit is the first face-to-face meeting for the group in almost two years as a result of what Johnson called the “most wretched pandemic”.
The Prime Minister said: “We need to make sure that we learn the lessons from the pandemic, we need to make sure that we don’t repeat some of the errors that we doubtless made in the course of the last 18 months or so.”
