Gordon Brown is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Shakira Mebarak is an international artist and global education advocate. Both are members of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, known as the Education Commission. The opinions expressed in this commentary are theirs.

If ours was a world where every child was in school and learning, then the two of us probably would have never met. But more than a decade ago, frustrated by education targets made by the international community set and missed, we came together to push back in a world where far too many children go without a quality education. It's up to all of us to make sure that children around the world have `access` to this essential right. Today, we finally have good news.