LONDON – Ensuring every child gets a good education is the “civil rights struggle of our generation”, United Nations education envoy Gordon Brown said ahead of launching a plan for the largest educational expansion in history.

Education not only provides children with a route out of poverty but also guards against the spread of extremism, the former British prime minister said as he called for a massive increase in investment.

“We will be betraying half our future if we do not take action,” he told a media briefing at the United Nations on Friday.

Under new global development goals agreed upon last year, all children should be receiving primary and secondary education by 2030.

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