Something quietly interesting about the fact that Poland was chosen as the site for one of the most important conferences on early childhood education this decade. It’s not a coincidence. The 78th OMEP World Assembly and World Conference will be held in Poznań in July 2026. The choice to hold it in Poland is significant in a way that most international education summits never are.
“When a Child Speaks: Korczak’s Inspirations for Education and Children’s Rights” is the title of the conference. That name, Korczak, is more important than most people outside of education might think. Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish pediatrician, author, and teacher who, in the early 1900s, made the very strong case that kids were not being trained to be good citizens. They were real people. People who were there, thinking, and feeling and deserved respect right now. He was killed by the Nazis at Treblinka in 1942 after turning down an offer to escape that would have meant leaving the kids he was taking care of behind.
When you think about what this conference is meant to do, it’s hard not to feel how important that story is. The 78th OMEP World Conference is more than just a bunch of academics getting together to give talks and have panels. It really is an attempt to find out if the ideas Korczak fought for and died for have changed the way people treat children today. To be honest, the answer is: partly, unevenly, and not nearly enough.
On July 13, the event starts with a pre-assembly trip to Treblinka, which is kind of like a pilgrimage. There, member delegates will plant trees in what is being called the “Korczak Forest,” with a plaque with one of his quotes on each tree. Each tree represents an OMEP national committee. Though in the best way possible, that move feels a little old-fashioned. Global policy, thematic frameworks, and declarations could become abstract without this. It grounds them in something real and unchangeable.
The official World Conference takes place from July 16th to July 18th. It is organized around seven themes, such as children’s rights, participatory pedagogy, education for peace, sustainability, and the role of teachers as human rights defenders. Take a moment to think about that last frame. It’s not common to call teachers “human rights defenders” at conferences. It suggests a goal that goes beyond the usual suggestions for future thought that these kinds of events often lead to.
This meeting has real-world support because it is directly linked to Target 4.2 of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This target calls for all children, regardless of background, to have access to high-quality early childhood care and education. People also think that the conference will reaffirm the promises made in the Tashkent Declaration of 2022 and make a direct link to UNESCO’s 2023 Recommendation on Education for Peace and Human Rights. It’s never clear if those promises will lead to changes in policy in different countries. This difference between saying something and doing it is one of the most frustrating things about working in international education.
But the Poznań Declaration 2026, which is what is supposed to come out of this, is meant to be more than just general solidarity. UNESCO, UNICEF, universities on several continents, and civil society groups are some of the document’s key partners. This at least suggests that it won’t be thrown away as soon as the conference is over.
As this plays out, it seems like the timing is also important. The world in 2026 is dealing with ongoing wars, growing economic inequality, a lot of families having to move, and the complicated fact that kids today grow up in digital worlds that no one has figured out how to fully control. Korczak’s insistence that kids should be able to be heard—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the moral and democratic thing to do—seems less like a footnote in history and more like an argument that needs to be made again and again.
That won’t get better at the 78th OMEP World Conference. One conference doesn’t do it all. But bringing together researchers, teachers, and policymakers in the city where a man once showed that morals are more important than survival carries a certain weight. What the people in the room do afterward will determine if it leads to change.
