Asking thousands of academics, researchers, and policymakers in a Polish university city directly if they have been paying attention to the people they purport to represent has a subtly radical quality. These individuals are younger than eight years old. The conference, OMEP 2026, is set to take place in Poznań, Poland, from July 13 to 18. Its theme, “When a Child Speaks…” Korczak’s Inspirations for Education and Children’s Rights,” is inspired by a man who perished in a Nazi extermination camp while defending the children under his care.
That is the 78th OMEP World Assembly and World Conference’s official title, and it doesn’t sound like an academic banner. The Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak, who refused to leave the Warsaw Ghetto orphans behind, held a view that still unnerves many adults: children are not future adults. They are now human beings. Thinking, feeling, and now worthy of respect. Not in the end. Not after they graduate from school.
Framing may be more important than anyone in the early childhood field wants to acknowledge. Economic arguments about GDP projections, workforce readiness, and returns on investment have dominated the global discourse surrounding young children for decades. All of that is circumvented by Korczak’s philosophy. He didn’t inquire about the potential of children. He inquired as to who they were already. OMEP appears to be deliberately choosing which question is more important by holding this event in his native country.
The timing seems more deliberate than it actually is. Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, the world president of OMEP, told a group of diplomats inside the Palais des Nations in Geneva just months prior to the Poznań conference that early childhood is still stuck in a “legal gray zone.” Pre-primary education is not specifically mentioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, although free primary education is guaranteed. At that session, 92 member states attended to discuss a potential optional protocol that would completely alter the legal framework. Thirty-one showed unmistakable support. Just three people were against it. The room was reminded by five kids chosen from various areas that education “is not a reward, but a right.” Imagine the diplomats shifting a little in their seats.
The advocacy’s statistics are unyielding. Enrollment in organized learning prior to primary school actually decreased from 75% in 2020 to 72% in 2023, according to data released by UNESCO and UNICEF’s global reporting. Roughly 30% of children in nations with data are not developing normally. The percentage of trained teachers in low-income countries is only 57%. These aren’t abstract concepts. They stand in for millions of three and four-year-olds who are either sitting in no rooms at all or in rooms with overburdened caregivers.
The conference in Poznań will be structured around seven thematic axes, ranging from sustainability education to empathy-based pedagogy. However, participation—real participation, not the ornamental kind where adults hang children’s artwork on a wall and refer to it as voice—runs through all of them. OMEP seems to be drawing a boundary. It is not generous to listen to children. According to Korczak’s framework, it is a moral and democratic duty. A responsibility, not an act of kindness.
Something out of the ordinary will kick off the conference. Participants will plant trees in a “Korczak Forest,” each representing an OMEP national committee, as part of a pre-assembly event at Treblinka. Korczak quotes will be displayed on plaques. Reminding participants that the rights they are discussing were previously denied with absolute finality is a gesture that connects memory to mission.
It’s unclear if Poznań produces legally binding agreements or primarily symbolic statements. On that front, the performance of international conferences has been inconsistent. However, the way OMEP has presented its provocation is worth observing. By focusing on Korczak, a man who opted to die with children rather than live without them, the organization goes beyond simply questioning whether adults understand what children require. It is implying—with significant historical weight—that the solution may necessitate greater candor than most institutions are willing to provide.
