At the annual OMEP Argentina International Encounter on Early Childhood Education, you can almost instantly sense a certain kind of energy that only arises when people who are passionate about something come together in one room. The event, which is currently in its nineteenth edition and is known by its Spanish acronym EIEI, has developed from a small national conference into what many educators in Latin America believe to be the most significant annual gathering on early childhood care and education in the region. It’s not an official title, and it’s not a small claim. However, the conviction is difficult to miss if you spend any time with the attendees.
Teachers, researchers, university professors, policy advocates, and government officials from Argentina and beyond attend the Buenos Aires event. What began as a project of the Argentine committee of OMEP has grown into something more, a gathering place for thoughts, frustrations, and aspirations that extend well beyond the boundaries of any one nation. The Argentine chapter has an exceptional proximity to the global leadership of OMEP due to the organization’s world headquarters being located on Sanchez de Bustamante street in Buenos Aires. Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, an Argentine educator with fifty years of experience, was the World President of OMEP from 2020 to 2025. Her impact on the encounter and the movement as a whole cannot be overstated.
The intentional accessibility of the EIEI distinguishes it from standard academic conferences. The organizers have reduced the general rate for teachers at partner institutions by half, offered a 25 percent discount for early payment, completely waived costs for individual OMEP members, and maintained registration fees from the previous year. It’s a pragmatic gesture that conveys a philosophical message: budget lines shouldn’t be a barrier to discussing children’s futures. For now, it seems to be working, but it remains to be seen if that generosity will continue as the event grows.
The topics discussed in recent meetings are indicative of a field that is not content to remain small. Play as pedagogy, creativity, foundational learning, and the arts and culture in early childhood education are not ornamental extras. They are at the heart of a contentious ongoing discussion about what Latin American education systems owe their youngest citizens. Argentina itself is in the middle of a paradigm-shaking argument over its Education Freedom Bill, which proposes a shift from state-guaranteed education toward a model based on individual family choice. The leadership of OMEP has publicly criticized the move, claiming that it could worsen inequality in a region already divided by poverty, geography, and unequal access. The interaction has grown to be one of the few venues where that discussion takes place in person, creating genuine conflict as well as agreement.
Contradictions in the early childhood landscape of Latin America are difficult to overlook. Argentina’s preschool expansion was recently recognized by the Inter-American Development Bank as a success story, demonstrating quantifiable improvements in educational outcomes and social returns. Just last year, the World Bank approved a billion dollars in new initiatives for literacy and early childhood development in Argentina. However, access for children under three is still severely restricted throughout the region, staff qualifications differ greatly, and many nations hardly have comprehensive data systems. The encounter does a better job than most places at celebrating progress while recognizing how much is still broken.
The EIEI seems to have reached a tipping point. The event now serves as a political statement about the importance of early childhood work as well as a professional development opportunity, sixty years after OMEP Argentina was founded. The fact that OMEP actively invites younger researchers and educators under thirty to attend its larger international conferences suggests that the organization is considering generational continuity. It’s unclear if the intimacy of the encounter will endure as its reputation grows. However, it’s difficult to replicate walking through a conference hall in Buenos Aires full of people who have built their careers around the notion that a child’s early years are more important than nearly anything else.
