The Ministry of National Education (MEN) in Poland hosted an online conference entitled ‘Building a cross-sectoral coalition for early child development and family support’ on 24 and 25 September.
The conference formed part of the on-going project to improve the quality of inclusive education in Poland, which is funded by the European Union’s Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP). The Agency has been working on the SRSP project in Poland, in collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Structural Reform Support, since 2018. The conference explored ways to implement the recommendations to improve inclusive education developed in the first phase of the SRSP work, while considering stakeholders’ needs and available funds.
Representatives from the MEN and the Ministries of Health, Family, Labour and Social Policy, and Developmental Funds and Regional Policy all participated in the conference. Parents of young children described the Agora project and its support for learners with special educational needs in the early years. Other participants included school leaders and teachers, pre-primary educators, special education professionals and representatives from local government and universities.
The conference compared national and European inclusive early childhood education and policies in Poland and Portugal. It also presented proposals for cross-sectoral integration of early childhood and family support services. It concluded with workshops in which participants discussed ways to use cross-sectoral methods to overcome barriers to inclusive early childhood education.
For more information on the conference, visit the MEN website (in Polish). For details of the collaboration between the MEN and the Agency within the SRSP project, click on the links on the right.