Plans to bring a primary school education to every child in the world will be at the top of Britain’s agenda at the G7 finance ministers’ meeting in Germany this weekend, the Treasury said yesterday.

Gordon Brown will travel to Essen to urge the finance ministers of the world’s richest nations to deliver on their commitments to education in developing countries.

Last April, the Chancellor pledged to channel £8.5 billion from Britain’s aid budget over the next ten years towards education, mainly in Africa. This weekend he will call for donors to match Britain’s spending, Treasury sources said.

The European Commission will host a conference at the end of April to discuss how best to fund education plans put forward by 17 African countries last year. Mr Brown’s hope is to guarantee primary education for every child on the planet, at an estimated cost of $17 billion a year.

Mr Brown and Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, have also set out proposals to build school links between British schools and those in developing countries.

The Global School Partnerships programme provides support, including funding, to schools so they can partner schools in developing countries.

Campaigners have called on the G7 nations to set out a time-table this weekend for the sharp increase in foreign aid that they agreed to at the G8 summit at Gleneagles two years ago.

Tom Sharman, of ActionAid, said: “The success of the Heiligendamm summit [in June] depends on preparatory work by the finance ministers. So far, they have done very little about this year’s Africa agenda, but an even bigger worry is the unfinished business from Gleneagles in 2005.”

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