Quality and Equality in Early Childhood Education

This May at Limassol was the venue of the European Regional Assembly and Conference OMEP for researchers, teachers and other stakeholders in preschool education, organized by the National Committee OMEP Cyprus. Many European committees  but also OMEP members of other continents found their way to Limassol, between them our world president, Mercedes Mayol Lassalle and Adrijana Visnjic-Jevtic, the vice president of Europe. The event was hosted by the Cyprus Technological University and the Frederick University Cyprus.

The European Regional Assembly and Conference 2023 took place in Limassol, Cyprus and was organized by the National Committee of OMEP Cyprus led by its President, Maria Vassiliadou (Associate Professor in Art Education, Frederick University) and hosted by the Cyprus University of Technology and the Frederick University.

This year’s main conference subject was “Quality and Equality in Early Childhood Education” offering a broad range of presentations and activities in order to share the latest scientific and practical experiences in early childhood education and care. The economical crisis, social differences, climate change, lack of funding or political will, wars and the Covid-19 pandemic have denied millions of young children the access to a quality education without discrimination. The aim of OMEP in these difficult times is to grant this fundamental right to education for all the children and, through scientific evidence, education of teaching personnel, dissemination and improvement of curricular policies, implement the Tashkent Declaration 2022 where different stakeholders under the guidance of UNESCO (politicians, researchers, teachers, ONGs, activists and parents) signed a fundamental document that intends to guarantee inclusive, equitable and quality education for children until 8 years as a fundamental global right.

The conference consisted of more than one hundred interventions between internationally recognised keynote speakers, presentations of academic researchers  and practitioners (preschool teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, art educators, specialists in early childhood care) workshops and poster presentations  mainly from Europe but also from North and Latin America, Africa, Australia and Asia. The different thematic units with parallel sessions included art, parent’s role in child education, good practices during the pandemic, sustainable development, children's rights, inclusive education and equality, multiculturalism and multilingualism, health promotion, mental health, resilience in children and educators, art and museum and play and leisure in school and family environment. The main language at the conference was English but some extra symposiums were held in Greek, French and Spanish.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Cyprus Minister of Education, Sports and Youth and counted with the presence of the World President of OMEP, Mercedes Mayol Lassalle who stressed in her welcome message the importance of reflecting and promotion of the different aspects of the early childhood care and education document signed in Tashkent, the Vice President of OMEP European Region, Adrijana Visnjic-Jevtic and many OMEP Europe country presidents. Beside the academic programme, the event counted with cultural and social activities like kindergarten visits, the children’s art exhibition “Conferencing with Colours” an intoduction to “Color your rights II” curated by Maria Vassiliadou at Gallery Morfi, with a Children’s dance performance, songs presented by boy soprano, welcoming choir by children, artistic instalations by university students,  a night visit to the Limassol Medieval castle and a guided tour to Paphos that gave the participants the opportunity to know more aspects of Cyprus as a destination rich in history, culture and nature.