A child is learning in a national language other than her grandmother’s while seated at a desk in a rural Indonesian school. The curriculum does not include her grandmother’s language, which is one of the hundreds of regional tongues that are still spoken throughout the archipelago. It might never show up in her formal education. The story is not exclusive to Indonesia. Every continent is experiencing it in communities where the rate of standardization has surpassed any significant attempts to maintain the unique characteristics of a given location, population, or custom. The Liechtenstein-based global education network EdHeroes is attempting to address that. Additionally, it has attracted some serious assistance.
In order to incorporate regional cultural customs, languages, and histories into educational systems across the globe, EdHeroes established the Cultural Heritage in Education Committee in February 2025. Triesen, a tiny town in one of the least populous nations in Europe, made the announcement, which is either ironic or a purposeful statement about the notion that big countries or well-funded organizations are not the only ones who care about cultural preservation. Martin Vegas, who oversees UNESCO’s Horizontes Program in Peru; Keris Kwan, a representative of the Mangkunegaran Palace in Indonesia; Charles Looker, a Māori education leader from New Zealand; Gillette Hall, a former World Bank economist; and Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, the World President of OMEP, who joined the EdHeroes Advisory Board to ensure that the early childhood dimension—children from birth to age eight—stayed central to the mission.
The connection to OMEP is not coincidental. OMEP has maintained for decades that, depending on what occurs in the classroom, a child’s cultural identity is either subtly undermined or affirmed during the early years of their education. When a three-year-old’s first structured learning environment uses materials that reflect the dominant national culture and teaches only in that language, the message about whose knowledge matters is introduced early and tends to stick. The EdHeroes initiative is based on a different premise: that cultural awareness developed in early childhood produces something lasting; that curriculum can and should be locally rooted; and that teachers can be trained to bring community-specific storytelling, art, and history into formal and non-formal educational settings.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Initiative Name | EdHeroes Cultural Heritage in Education Committee |
| Launched | February 24, 2025 |
| Headquarters | Triesen, Liechtenstein |
| Backing Organization | OMEP (World Organization for Early Childhood Education) |
| OMEP Representative | Mercedes Mayol Lassalle — World President of OMEP; serves on EdHeroes Advisory Board |
| Six Core Values | Unity in Diversity, Sustainability of Cultural Heritage, Equitable Education for All, Lifelong Learning, Innovation with Purpose, Global Collaboration |
| Key Programs | Global Education Exchange Program (GEEP), Heritage Preservation & Revitalization Projects, Community-Driven Curriculum Development, World Citizen Learning, EdHeroes Action Week |
| Committee Members Include | Martin Vegas (UNESCO Perú), Dr. Mahendra Mishra (UNESCO Mother Language Award 2023), Piotr Michalowski (ENCC Brussels), Sara Mitchell (Amantani/Peru Hub), Spyridon Kogkas (Imagine Heritage/Greece), Keris Kwan (Mangkunegaran Palace, Indonesia), Gilles Pétreault (OMEP-France), Charles Looker (New Zealand Māori education), Gillette Hall (former World Bank economist) |
| Core Approach | “Glocality” — combining global insights with locally tailored educational action |
| Focus Age Group | Birth to 8 years (OMEP mandate for early childhood) |
| Cultural Heritage Focus | Languages, traditions, local histories, arts — particularly endangered or marginalized |
Dr. Mahendra Mishra, a committee member and recipient of the 2023 UNESCO International Mother Language Award, put the stakes in difficult-to-soften terms. He framed the committee’s work as representing international solidarity in reviving what he called cultural biodiversity and said that the swift decline of traditional culture had left “society in a moribund state.” Language may sound dramatic. It’s also true. According to UNESCO, half of the world’s 7,000 languages could be extinct by the end of this century. The majority of these languages will go extinct because children stopped learning them in classrooms that didn’t have enough room for them, rather than because they were intentionally suppressed.
The initiative’s practical architecture entails multiple programs running concurrently.
Opportunities for cross-border learning are created by the Global Education Exchange Program. In order to record and incorporate local knowledge, Heritage Preservation and Revitalization Projects collaborate closely with communities. By beginning with what a community knows and values rather than what a national standard demands, Community-Driven Curriculum Development flips the conventional paradigm. Additionally, EdHeroes Action Weeks give schools specific opportunities to actively discuss cultural heritage. The strategy is referred to as “glocal” since it supports hyper-local action by utilizing digital tools and global networks. It remains to be seen if that combination turns out to be truly effective at scale instead of creating a well-meaning patchwork.
As this initiative develops, it seems to be attempting something that the formal education system has long opposed: treating cultural continuity as a quantifiable educational goal and local knowledge as legitimate knowledge. Compared to test scores and graduation rates, this argument is more difficult to make. However, it might also be the more pressing issue for the communities whose languages and customs are rapidly vanishing.
