Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Representatives of around 150 countries have already confirmed their participation at UNESCO’s 2nd World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education envisaged to be held in the capital of Uzbekistan on 14th-16th of November. The Forum held once in a decade is a logical continuation of the recent UN Transforming Education Summit which called for prioritizing foundational learning.

“Investing in early education is the most transformative investment a country can make to give all children a fair start in life and combat inequalities early on,” says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, commenting on the event. "It is critical to lay the foundation preparing children for primary education, and enabling them to thrive through lifelong learning”.

The Conference will bring together over 1000 people, including Heads of State and Government and respective ministers, as well as participants from civil society, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, teacher and parent associations, and academia. Earlier this year UNESCO stated that 1 out of 4 children aged 5 have never had any form of pre-primary education Globally, only half of all countries guarantee free pre-primary education.

"We expect the Conference to contribute in increasing investments in children under 8 years as well as to set new benchmarks for their education and care in several priority domains. Adoption of Tashkent Declaration which will specify a strategy of development of primary education globally for a coming decade is expected to become main outcome of the Conference", says Minister of Preschool Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan Agrippina Shin. 

Let us recall that last week media across the world announced the outcomes of international research, according to which Uzbekistan topped the global ranking of dynamics of growth in enrollment of children aged 3 to 6 in preschool education. Tajikistan, Belarus, Finland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland and Azerbaijan also rank among top 10.