TWO teenage campaigners from Ringwood School received a standing ovation when they addressed the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference.

Year 10 pupils, Millie Wells, 15, and Sam Whittingham, 14, who are ambassadors for the Young Global Education Campaign, gave a hard-hitting presentation about inequality in education around the world to 140 education professionals at the Liverpool conference.

The pair have just returned from a life-changing trip to India where they visited slum communities, government school classes and Oxfam India projects in Delhi after winning the Steve Sinnott Award for their commitment to global education.

The Send My Friend to School campaign aims to remind world leaders of their promise to deliver quality universal primary education by 2015.

At the conference, Millie and Sam explained that there are more than 60 million children missing out on a basic primary education, with many more struggling to learn in overcrowded classrooms with untrained teachers.

Millie said: “We hope the teachers gained a different perspective on teaching and the challenges facing some education systems abroad. “The audience at the conference were really engaged with what we were saying and we hope they will sign their schools up to the Send My Friend to School campaign”.

Sam added: “I hope that now that we have spoken to the teachers the campaign will gain momentum as they sign up and encourage other schools to get involved. We both hope that as the force behind the campaign gets stronger governments will become more likely to act.”