OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities supports integration through multilingual education in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia

The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) organized the first “Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia School on Multilingual and Multicultural Education for Integration and Sustainable Development”, in co-operation with the ORLEU National Centre for Professional Development in Shymkent, Kazakhstan from 4 to 8 December 2017.

Representatives of education authorities and practitioners in the field from ten OSCE participating States in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia shared their expertise and experience of introducing and promoting multilingual and multicultural education in a methodologically sound manner.

Participants also visited schools in the South Kazakhstan region that are running or piloting multilingual and multicultural education programmes.

The event was designed to encourage further co-operation among the participating States, and with the HCNM. The possibility of establishing an inter-country education network was also explored.

Head of Office at the OSCE Programme Office in Astana György Szabó opened the event on behalf of the field mission.

The event is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, the UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kyrgyzstan.