“Too often we forget how lucky we are to go to school.” It’s corny, I guess, but it also expresses an important truth. It’s how French director Pascal Plisson opens his lovely 2013 film Sur le chemin de l’école. The 75-minute documentary celebrates education simply by tracing the route to school taken by four children and their friends and siblings.

Jackson, 11, lives in a remote part of Kenya and twice a day walks with his younger sister 15 kilometres through savannah filled with dangerous animals. The journey takes two hours. Carlito, 11, lives in the Patagonian wilds of Argentina and twice a day rides on horseback with his younger sister 18 kilometres through the high plains. The journey takes an hour and a half. Zahira, 12, lives in a distant part of Morocco and twice a week treks with two friends 22 kilometres through the Atlas Mountains. The journey takes four hours. Samuel, 13, lives in a fishing village on the Bay of Bengal in southern India and, not having use of his legs, is twice a day pushed by two younger brothers 4 kilometres in a decrepit wheelchair. The journey takes an hour and a quarter.

In Myanmar, roughly half of all children aged 11-13 do not attend school. An appropriately subtitled version of this inspiring movie would make for terrific viewing at free public screenings in cities, towns and villages across the country.