If he will make a statement on funding allocated to schools in developing countries.

The UK will spend some £8.5 billion on education in developing countries over the next 10 years. That long-term commitment will provide developing countries with predictable funding for 10-year investment plans to recruit and train more teachers, to get more pupils into and completing school, and to improve the quality of education. We will be pressing other wealthy countries to follow our lead to keep the promises that we made in 2005.

Over and above the fantastic work that is being done by my right hon. Friend, some amazing work is being done by young people from Cheshire. Has he seen my letter to him of 28 April, bringing to his attention the work of 12 young fire cadets who alone have raised £30,000 and who have been to Ghana to build a school themselves? That is the kind of leadership that we need for our young people. Will he engage with those young people and extend that scheme right across the country to help to match what he is doing in his Department?

I congratulate the fire cadets of the Cheshire fire service on the work that they are doing to build a school in Akrofu. I am sure that that experience will change the way they think about and see the world, as happens to most people who get the chance to go and visit. That is why the Government are also further extending the global schools partnership, which will allow more schools, more teachers and, over time, more pupils to benefit from that kind of involvement, not least because they will learn a great deal about what we and what children and young people in developing countries have to offer as well.

How does the Department for International Development intend to ensure that those children most marginalised from education—those orphaned by HIV/AIDS and those with disabilities—can benefit from the increased support? Will country plans include achievable and measurable targets to ensure that those children are included?

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. The most marginalised and disadvantaged group are, of course, disabled children. Unless disabled children are included in increasing primary enrolment, we will not achieve the universal primary education target by 2015. One of the things that we are doing in particular to help orphans and vulnerable children is targeting, as he will be aware, some of the money that we are using in the fight against AIDS to provide support and practical help to them, both through UNICEF and through country plans—for example, by helping to pay school fees where they still exist. So even though children have been orphaned and no longer have the care and love of their parents, they are at least able to continue to go to school.

Will my right hon. Friend tell us the total number of children in India who have benefited from the funding for education given by DFID?

If my hon. Friend will allow me, I shall write to him with the current and most up-to-date figure, but a significant part of our programme in India is indeed, as he will be aware, supporting the universal primary education programme. There is still some way to go, which is why India represents DFID's largest single bilateral programme in the world.

To achieve the millennium development goal of universal access to primary education, every sector in developing countries—state, private and other non-state actors—needs to be involved, particularly given that, as confirmed in the 2006 DFID annual report released yesterday, the targets to increase primary school enrolment and the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in schools are off track in both Africa and Asia. Many schools outside the state sector serve low-income families and outperform their state counterparts. What is DFID's strategy to encourage those non-state actors? How much of the £8.7 billion announced in April will go directly to schools and parents, to maximise enrolment?

The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point about the need to harness all the resources that are available to ensure that all those children go to school. That includes the voluntary sector and faith organisations, because, particularly in countries that are recovering from conflict, the only institutions that are still left standing are the Churches, the armed forces and, in some respects, the state, and we must consider all the means that are available to us. The real answer to his question is that it will depend on the plans that the countries themselves draw up, but if we are going to achieve that target by 2015, it is important that we draw on all the resources that are available to help to make it happen.

Does the Secretary of State acknowledge that achieving the millennium development goal of universal education is welcome, but that making education free does not make it compulsory and that, in many cases, it can lead to a loss of quality, with very large class sizes and poorly trained teachers? What is he doing to make sure that we not only deliver volume in education, but ensure the quality that achieves what is intended?

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The school that I visited recently in Mozambique has 4,200 children and runs four shifts a day. Those in the last shift often have their education cut short because the lights go out, since the school cannot afford the electricity bill. There are holes in the roof, some children sit on the floor and class sizes of 70 and above. That demonstrates the need for more resources, more planning, more teachers, more classrooms, more books and more equipment. What developing countries need from us, as we play our part in helping them to achieve that goal, is money that they can rely on to plan, to put into their proposals and to add to the resources that they can raise, because that is the only way in which we are going to make progress.