The Ministry of
Education is leading the efforts to transform early childhood care and
education in the UAE, with more than 1,100 UAE educators and international experts
gathering for its three-day Early Childhood Development (ECD) Conference from
24 to 26 September at the Teachers Training Institute in Ajman. The event is organized
in collaboration with the UAE’s Supreme Council of Motherhood and Childhood, International
Bureau of Education-UNESCO and UNICEF. The ECD Conference will feature 55
internationally renowned early childhood development experts, who will help UAE
educators make a significant impact on the standards achieved for young
children.
The ECD conference, the first of a series of
annual conferences to be orginised in the UAE, will have for theme,
“Redesigning Early Childhood Education and Care Services”, aims to provide
decision makers, educational leaders and educators with access to the latest research. Additionally, the conference
will provide a platform to reflect on
key messages and use this insight to continue to redesign early childhood development for children aged from
0-8 in the UAE.
Commenting
on the event, H.E. Jamila Bint Salem Al Muhairi, Minister of State for General
Education, said: “The Ministry has a huge responsibility for early childhood
development in the UAE and it is our aim to ensure that we have the suitable
teachers with the right skills to meet our world-class standards. We want to
make sure we learn from leading experts in the sector and then deploy these
best practices in our classrooms. This event marks a milestone for the Ministry
as it is our first Early Childhood Development Conference. We are honoured to
have more than 50 experts in the ECCE field attending this event to share their
knowledge, experiences and expertise with more than 1000 of our teachers and
educational leaders.”
Among the renowned
international experts invited to the conference are, Sir Chistopher Ball, author of the breakthrough
report which led to reforming the early years sector in the UK; Dr. W. Steven
Barnett, Professor and Director of the National Institute for Early Education
Research at Rutgers University; Professor Gregoire Borst, Professor of Developmental Psychology
and Cognitive Neuroscience of Education at the University Paris Descartes; Dr Ellen Frede, researcher and architect of
the New Jersey early childhood sector; Dr.
Anne-Lise Ducanda, a medical doctor and renowned advocate against over exposure
to technology from Paris; Dr. Angelica Ponguta, Associate Research Scientist in
the Child Study Center from Latin America, Dr Moon a researcher and an Early
Years expert from Korea and Dr. Peter
Tymms, Director of iPIPS at Durham University. The keynote and a number of
expert speakers will present information on interesting topics related to early
childhood development and share international best practice.
The event will
consist of a two-day national conference running from 24 to 25 September and
followed by a closed International Bureau
of Education -UNESCO Technical Consultative Meeting on Early Childhood Care and
Education (ECCE) on 26 September. The Consultative Meeting will help develop a
roadmap for Global ECD conference that the Ministry will host in the future.