When delegates from fifty-two nations begin to arrive with name badges and jet lag, a certain kind of energy permeates a university hallway. When Chulalongkorn University hosted the 76th OMEP World Assembly and Conference in mid-July 2024—the first time Thailand had been selected for the honor—that was the scene at the Faculty of Education. Over the course of five days, about 580 participants moved between sessions at the Phra Mingkwan Karnsuksa Building and, later, the ballrooms of Centara Grand at Central World. It was not an ostentatious event. It wasn’t necessary.
The World Organization for Early Childhood Education, or OMEP, was founded in 1948, making it older than the majority of the nations represented at this assembly. Observing an organization that used to collaborate with a university in Bangkok provides insight into the changing focus of early education research. Childhood policy discussions tended to center on North America and Europe for many years. Chulalongkorn seems to be one of the locations taking in this change, which is happening gradually and without much fanfare.
“Right from the Start for ECCE: Step Beyond All Together,” the assembly’s theme, sounds like the kind of phrase that gets workshopped into blandness. However, it seemed to have a more specific meaning when sitting inside the actual sessions. Speakers such as Mathias Urban from Dublin City University discussed the need to reclaim early education from a place of genuine hope rather than reaction, as well as climate disruption and displacement. Using the term “polycrisis,” Sheldon Shaeffer of ARNEC argued that early childhood systems now need to prepare kids for both learning and surviving overlapping global shocks. Compared to most early-education conferences, it’s a heavier framing.
There is more to the Chulalongkorn connection than just the conference. Standing in the same building, UNESCO presented the data. In nations where data is available, nearly one-third of children are not developing normally. In fact, pre-primary enrollment decreased from 75% in 2020 to 72% in 2023—a statistic that ought to worry more people than it does. If anyone is serious about achieving universal pre-primary access by 2030, low-income countries will need about six million qualified teachers. Such figures are often buried in reports. It is quite another to have them debate out loud in front of decision-makers from dozens of countries in a lecture hall in Bangkok.
Chulalongkorn does more than just host. The university has been expanding internationally for the past few years, sending its own students to Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines for cooperative coursework and establishing connections with ASEAN partners through initiatives like the AUN Summer Camps. Higher education in Thailand is increasingly positioning itself as a hub for connectivity between the East and the West rather than as a regional player. It remains to be seen if that goal will be fully realized. These claims are frequently made by universities, but not all of them are true.
However, there’s something enduring about this specific partnership. This wasn’t a one-time prestige event, as evidenced by the fact that Thailand earned a spot in OMEP’s World Assembly, followed by ongoing ASEAN academic exchange, and now a new declaration out of Bologna shaping its 2025–2026 agenda. It’s difficult to ignore how subtly this kind of influence develops. It doesn’t make headlines. However, a generation from now, the policies that were shaped in that conference room in Bangkok might be quietly sitting beneath classrooms that most people never give much thought to.
