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Kevin Watkins, discussion moderator David Loyn, Julia Gillard and Gordon Brown Picture:

�鶹APP�Promises to children should never be broken.�鶹APP�

That phrase was famously uttered in 2006 by Nelson Mandela. The wording was slightly different but the meaning was the same when Gordon Brown made an impassioned plea for funding to ensure that every child in the world goes to school.

�鶹APP�For all the promises we made we haven�鶹APP�t put up the funds,�鶹APP� the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education said at a panel discussion in London this week on funding education for Syrian refugees.

He said the new �鶹APP� which he is chairing �鶹APP� has to remind world leaders that when they signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals they promised to deliver universal education by 2030.

And that has to start on February 4 when a crucial Syria donors conference is held in London �鶹APP� with $750 million needed to put one million refugee children into school in neighbouring countries.

Money is also needed urgently to fund education in emergencies, with half of all the world�鶹APP�s out-of-school children living in conflict zones.

Mr Brown was joined on the stage at the Frontline Club by Julia Gillard, Board Chair of the , and Kevin Watkins, Executive Director of the .

Asked about the role of the new body, he said: �鶹APP�The purpose of the education commission is to alert people to the fact that if you make promises �鶹APP� such as the international community did in September �鶹APP� that every child will be guaranteed not just primary but secondary education by 2030.

Syrian refugee children at a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon Picture: Claire Wilkinson/A World at School

�鶹APP�For all the promises we made we haven�鶹APP�t put up the funds. So we�鶹APP�re going to look at how we actually finance the delivery of education over these next years so that we can indeed be the first generation when every single child can go to school.�鶹APP�

On the two million Syrian children living as refugees in countries including Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, Mr Brown said he wanted to ask these questions.

�鶹APP�Why after five years of this civil war is the fate of these children not being addressed?��Why is education for these children in particular falling completely through the net?

�鶹APP�Why are most of them still out of school, on the streets, and why are they vulnerable to child labour, child marriage and child trafficking without the world doing enough about it?�鶹APP�

He said that if the $750 million is raised, the number of double-shift school places will be doubled in Lebanon, Jordan will double their number of refugee children in school and Turkey will move to educate large numbers of Sryian children in the next few months.

Kevin Watkins said progress had been made in educating Syrian refugees �鶹APP� with enrollment in Lebanese schools rising from 60,000 to more than 200,000 in this academic year.

He said: �鶹APP�It demonstrates what is possible and invites us to hang our heads in shame at what we�鶹APP�ve allowed to happen.

Girls�鶹APP� education is vital says Julia Gillard �鶹APP� these girls are at a school run by the charity��Khwendo Kor in Pakistan

�鶹APP�Four years ago an average Syrian child had the same prospect of getting through primary school as the same kid in a high-performing country like Thailand. They had a 70% chance of getting into secondary school.

�鶹APP�In the space of a single generation, they�鶹APP�ve gone to education indicators close to Sierra Leone and��South Sudan.�鶹APP�

He said the current levels of funding for education mean there is �鶹APP�zero prospect of meerting the 2030 goals�鶹APP�.

Julia Gillard spoke about the importance of providing education for girls, admitting that there is now �鶹APP�more energy around trying to do more for girls around the world�鶹APP�.

She added: �鶹APP�There is increasing evidence that girls�鶹APP� education is a transformative change agent not just for her but for her family and her community.

�鶹APP�At current rates, it won�鶹APP�t be until 2111 that the world first sees a generation of sub-Saharan African girls who universally go to primary and lower secondary education.��That means no one in this room will live to see it. It�鶹APP�s too long to wait.�鶹APP�

But she insisted that simply getting children into school was not enough. The quality of teaching and learning also had to be a priority.

Watch the full discussion here