The OMEP World Assembly and Conference was held in Bangkok in July 2024. Attending the assembly in person was very inspiring.
Updates from around the globe
Many wonderful projects are happening around the world. Nine countries, including India and Nepal from the Asia-Pacific region, were granted preparatory committee status. Jamaica and the Democratic Republic of Congo were granted National Committee status.
Tokunbo Doherty from Nigeria, Christiane Bourdages-Simpson from Canada, and Diti Hill Denee from New Zealand were awarded life membership for their contributions. Special Words were also shared for Dorothy Selleck from Wales, who passed away this year.
Reports about OMEP’s signature projects – ESD, WASH, toy libraries and play were given, and the assembly agreed to move the celebration of play to the 11th of June.
OMEP World Declaration for 2024
The OMEP World Declaration for 2024 supports a UN Decade of Early Childhood Education. Sandie Wong, ex-OMEP Australia president and current Asia-Pacific vice president, drafted the declaration. Well done, Sandie. You can access a copy of the Declaration here.
Australian attendees
Eight Australians attended the conference – Sandie Wong, Sandra Hesterman, Vicki Christopher, Julie Davis, Sue Elliott, Lynette Cheng and Mairi Baker and I. Lynette was an inaugural recipient of the new OMEP award – New Scholar Award (post-graduate student) for her Master’s degree that investigated how refugees are depicted in children’s literature.
The prize included conference registration. The OMEP Australia executive committee agreed to award Lynette $2500 to cover her travel costs to attend the conference as the Rosamund Combs award was not given this year.
Symposium on Play
The Asia-Pacific regional presidents presented a symposium on play. It was fascinating to hear about play across our diverse region. Some Asian presentations certainly challenged my definition of play as freely chosen, intrinsically motivating and enjoyable.
It was very interesting to see the number of similarities in traditional games throughout the region. It made me wonder how this occurred – my best guess was early travellers and missionaries with young children.
77th OMEP Conference in 2025
The conference closing saw the flag pass to Italy, which will hold the next world assembly and conference in Bologna from the 14th to the 18th of July. The conference theme is Arts and Culture in Early Childhood Education: Play, expression and participation. It looks to be a very popular conference. I have no doubt the numbers will exceed the 545 who attended the Thailand conference.
To find out more, visit the conference website.
