Between the keynote speeches and the late-night hallway discussions, there’s a point at an OMEP World Conference when you realize that something truly out of the ordinary is taking place. Researchers from Bangkok and Dublin are debating curriculum frameworks with educators from Seoul and Lagos. A UNICEF representative is paying close attention to a village-level practitioner from the Sukhothai Province of Thailand. Additionally, a table of origami paper cranes that were folded by kids from Nagasaki is quietly on display somewhere nearby, making a point that no policy brief could.
It’s OMEP. And if you’ve never heard of it, that probably says more about how early childhood education is valued globally than it does about the organization.
The World Organization for Early Childhood Education was established in 1948 in Prague in the immediate, still-raw aftermath of World War II. It was founded on the straightforward but radical belief that the welfare of young children is a matter of global, collective responsibility. It was launched with the assistance of Lady Allen of Hurtwood and Alva Myrdal, the Swedish social reformer who would go on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. UNESCO offered assistance right away. Since then, the organization has been operating in over 70 countries, subtly influencing how educators and governments view the years between birth and age eight.
The variety of topics covered at OMEP’s annual World Conference sets it apart from other summits on education. The theme of the 76th Assembly, held in Bangkok in July 2024, was “Right from the Start for ECCE: Step Beyond All Together.” The underlying tension was genuine, despite the mouthful. The director of Dublin City University’s Early Childhood Research Centre, Mathias Urban, put it simply: the youngest children are the ones who are most affected by the climate catastrophe, forced migration, deteriorating democracy, and the compounding pressures of global economic inequality. Early childhood education may be the industry most directly affected by the “polycrisis” that Sheldon Shaeffer described during the conference.
To be honest, the information displayed in Bangkok was sobering. According to data from UNESCO’s first worldwide report on early childhood care, enrollment rates for organized pre-primary education actually decreased between 2020 and 2023, according to Rokhaya Fall Dawara, the organization’s ECCE lead. Less than 57% of teachers in low-income nations have formal training. Six million more teachers would need to be hired in order to achieve universal enrollment for even one year of pre-primary education by 2030. These policy numbers are not abstract. They stand for kids who begin school already behind in nations where it is structurally challenging to catch up.
Nevertheless, as you watch this develop over several conference sessions, you are struck by an odd, resolute optimism rather than despair. Despite the depressing evidence, there’s a feeling that the people in these rooms sincerely think the problem can be solved. Community-based programs in rural Thailand, peace education integrated into preschool curricula in Kenya and Cyprus, and area-based development initiatives in provinces most people outside Thailand are unaware of are just a few examples of the small-scale and local best practices being shared. Nothing about it is ostentatious. The majority of it is operational.
The 77th edition, which will take place in Bologna in July 2025 with the theme “Arts and Culture in Early Childhood Education: Play, Expression, Participation,” indicates that OMEP is also focusing on something that the data-driven development community occasionally overlooks: childhood isn’t just a stage of preparation for economic productivity. It’s unique. Play is important. Expression is important. In a time when workforce readiness metrics and quantifiable results are taking center stage in education policy, the decision to prioritize arts and culture feels subtly subversive.
The organizing committee has decided to revisit the legacy of Janusz Korczak, the Polish-Jewish educator who championed children’s rights decades before the United Nations was established, in preparation for the 78th conference in 2026. That decision wasn’t made by accident. It serves as a reminder that the moral underpinnings of early childhood education transcend any specific legislative framework and that, in order to respect children, one must first acknowledge that they have rights that should be upheld.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that these discussions take place primarily behind closed doors. Davos receives more media attention than OMEP does. There are no big announcements that could change the market, nor are there any celebrity appearances. However, the choices being made in these conference halls regarding the education, care, and recognition of children as individuals with rights may have longer-term effects than the majority of topics covered in Davos. A child’s early years are not a footnote to policy. They tell the entire story in ways that are hard to change later, and they do so very early on.
It remains to be seen if the world is finally beginning to realize that. However, the argument has been made by OMEP since 1948. It doesn’t seem like it will end anytime soon.
