Author: Nelson Rosario

Witnessing a nation demolish what it has painstakingly built over the course of a century is quietly devastating. Argentina’s public education system was not accidental. It created it, contested it, and discussed it in congresses, constitutions, and educational movements dating back to 1882. It was a deliberate endeavor. Because of this, what is currently taking place in 2025, as OMEP Argentina celebrates its 60th year, feels more like a philosophical break than a change in policy. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education, or OMEP, has been fighting for the youngest children—those who cannot vote, cannot advocate for themselves, and…

A charity’s donation page has a subtle message. The infrastructure behind it is what matters, not the logo or the carefully crafted, optimistic mission statement. the selected payment processor. the footnotes to the policy. The explanation of 100% pass-through is almost defensive, as though donors needed assurance that their five pounds wouldn’t disappear in the middle of delivery and goodwill. That PayPal page is more than just a giving portal for a company like OMEP UK, a specialized environmental charity that works at the school and community levels. It provides insight into how small charities that prioritize education manage to…

Admitting that the system you’ve created, no matter how well-meaning, was only ever telling half the story requires a certain level of intellectual bravery. A small but tenacious group of early childhood educators and researchers in New Zealand seem to be struggling with that realization. For many years, the Aotearoa New Zealand chapter of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, or OMEP, has quietly opposed the inclination to treat Western academic frameworks as the standard in early childhood research, arguing that Māori knowledge systems are a parallel and equal source of understanding rather than a supplement. OMEP was established…

A grainy, black-and-white photo of a man in a military coat strolling through Warsaw’s streets with a line of kids has been making the rounds in some academic circles. It was taken sometime in the early 1940s. Janusz Korczak was that man. The kids came from his orphanage. They were moving in the direction of Treblinka. Someone had offered him a way out. He declined. A room is often silenced by that image or the narrative that surrounds it. However, the silence is rarely followed by agreement among early childhood scholars. It’s a thoughtful, sometimes contentious, sometimes intimate debate about…

People who care deeply about something and continue to witness its careless handling develop a specific type of frustration that gradually accumulates over years. You can sense it almost instantly if you spend any time in Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education community. It can be found in the meticulous wording of submissions, the loaded silences at sector meetings, and the tenacity of groups like OMEP Aotearoa, which have been voicing serious concerns about the integrity and equity of New Zealand’s ECE system for a longer period of time than many current policymakers have paid attention. The World Organization for…

Seeing Sweden, which has long been hailed as a global leader in child welfare, confront grave concerns about whether its immigration policies are failing the most vulnerable children inside its own borders is an unsettling irony. Outside commentators or fringe voices are not the source of the criticism. It comes from within, and it’s becoming more difficult to ignore. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education’s national branch, Swedish OMEP, has voiced strong concerns about the direction of Sweden’s immigration and integration policy, claiming that extensive government reforms are putting migrant children in a more vulnerable situation. It’s also difficult…

Not too long ago, child poverty in Britain was actually declining. The number of children living in poverty decreased from approximately three million to 1.6 million between 1998 and 2010. Announcements about the budget carried weight. Every decimal point was monitored by charities. Even in its imperfect form, reducing child poverty seemed to be a priority for the political elite. It’s difficult to ignore the absence now that that time has passed. In the UK, four million children are currently living in poverty. Almost one in three. That’s nine children in every thirty-person classroom who don’t have enough, and whose…

A team of researchers and early childhood advocates spent two and a half years creating something that hardly anyone was requesting somewhere inside Kristianstad University, a tiny Swedish city that most people outside of Scandinavia would find difficult to locate on a map. Preschool teachers can learn how to discuss sustainability with young children by taking this free, research-based online course. not adolescents. not students at universities. young children. One of the more significant initiatives in early childhood education that the Erasmus+ program has funded is Sustainability from the Start, which is currently sitting quietly inside a mobile app that…

In early childhood education, five years is a long time. Policies change, research grows, funding models evolve, and the kids themselves—well, they keep coming in without realizing if the advice their practitioners depend on has kept up. Birth to 5 Matters, the non-statutory framework used in thousands of settings nationwide, no longer accurately reflects the realities practitioners face every morning when they open their doors. OMEP UK and more than a dozen coalition partners have been signaling that this tension is at the heart of a growing movement within England’s early years sector. The initial guidelines were released on March…

The early childhood education sector in Argentina is experiencing a stir that doesn’t feel like a typical policy dispute. Compared to that, it feels heavier. A proposed Education Freedom Bill that would drastically change how the nation views its youngest citizens is being opposed by educators, union organizers, and advocacy organizations throughout Buenos Aires and beyond. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education, or OMEP, is at the center of this pushback. Although it has been doing this kind of work for more than 70 years, it has rarely done so with such urgency. The conflict has deep roots. The…