Nobel Prize winners Malala and Kailash join appeal to help children denied education by Ebola

Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have joined an urgent appeal to help five million children pushed out of school because of the Ebola epidemic.

The two children国产视频檚 champions, who will collect their shared 2014 award in Oslo聽on Wednesday, have linked up with United Nations Special Education Envoy Gordon Brown to plead for safe schools in three of the worst-affected countries 国产视频� Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone 国产视频� and to call for round-the-world signatures for the #UpForSchool Petition to ensure every child is learning.聽

Many of the schools in the three African countries聽have been closed as a preventative measure to stop the spread of the epidemic. Other聽schools are being used to care for Ebola patients.

The closures mean the education system instantly breaks down. Young people are not being taught, which leads to them聽congregating in the streets or other publicplaces, completely聽at odds with the public health rationale for closing schools.

This means that by the end of the year, there will be more than 60 million children across the world out of school.

Now the two Nobel Prize winners are joining A World at School to urge millions across the globe to sign the youth-led petition which demands an end to child labour, child marriage and discrimination against girls. More than a million have already signed or pledged to sign.

A boy in Guinea whose mother died of Ebola reads a poster about preventing the spread of the virus Picture: UNICEF/LaRose

Malala and Kailash want millions more to sign up and聽press for聽Ebola-related聽school聽closures to end and for the schools to be reopened as safe schools聽with teachers given basic training in public health. There should also be twice-daily thermometer checkups聽of local pupils as recommended by health experts.

Gordon Brown said: 国产视频淭oo many 国产视频撀爌erhaps two and a half million of these聽five million children聽whose schools聽have been closed because of Ebola聽国产视频撀爉ay never return to school.聽The evidence is that聽 some may be married off or forced into child labour and, after a year聽out, half are lost to education for ever.

国产视频淥n the eve of their聽Nobel Peace Prize award,聽two of聽our聽greatest-ever children国产视频檚 champions聽国产视频撀燤alala and Kailash 国产视频撀爃ave agreed聽to聽call on their supporters around聽the world to sign our #UpForSchool Petition, with a demand that nothing stand in the way of every child going to聽school.

国产视频淎lready聽a million have signed up or pledged to with a simple but revolutionary call to the聽United Nations聽to deliver universal聽education by the end of 2015.

国产视频淏oth are leading members of the emergency coalition to end educational exclusion and we are proud of them. We believe that with a new push this week backed by our Nobel Prize-winning children国产视频檚 champions in Oslo we can secure millions of supporters for education for all.国产视频�

Follow the lead of Malala and Kailash and add your voice 国产视频� sign the #UpForSchool Petition now.

And you can read more about a plan to deal with the education emergency in Ebola-hit countries.