OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities’ office organizes Regional School on Multilingual and Multicultural Education in Osh, Kyrgyzstan

The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities organized a Regional School on Multilingual and Multicultural Education in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, from 18 to 22 November 2019, bringing together around 90 participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan to share experiences and build capacities in this field.

The Regional School promoted balanced multilingual and multicultural education programmes in order to support the integration of diverse societies and encourage sustainable development. This contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

“The implementation of multilingual education is part of the education system reform in Kyrgyzstan and it includes all education levels,” said Nurlan Omurov, Deputy Education Minister of Kyrgyzstan, as he opened the event.

While increasing the expertise and competence of practitioners in the region, the Regional School also supported the development of bilateral and multilateral co-operation on education issues.

Experts based in Estonia, Latvia and Moldova, as well as Central Asia, provided their insights to the Regional School participants.

The High Commissioner has been implementing the Central Asia Education Programme since 2012. The programme aims to promote multilingual and multicultural education and develop bilateral and multilateral co-operation in the region to promote the integration of society.