Giving every child an equal opportunity to thrive in learning is a vision aspired to by the education systems across the region. While this vision was a result of the Regional Conference "Embracing diversity through education", in Tirana, on 6-7 November, another major event took place recently, where the vision was shared again by the Central and Eastern Europe countries and beyond.  This event was the Regional Ministerial Conference "Including all children in quality learning" held in Istanbul on 10-13 December, supported by the UNICEF Regional Office CEE/CIS and Government of Turkey.

"Unrealised dreams are expensive" Mr. Keith Lewin pointed out in his keynote address. Therefore, the region cannot any longer afford to overlook the dream of having every child in school and every child learning. The Council of Europe through its Joint EU/CoE Project "Regional Support for Inclusive Education" was part of this conference contributing to the forum which discussed knowledge sharing, learning and exchange of good practices between countries and partners on the strategies for achieving equity in education.
 

The conference launched a Call for Action on "Education Equity Now", whereby all government representatives from 20 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia reiterated the commitment of their governments.

The Joint Project "Regional Support for Inclusive Education" will help create synergies and efforts to maximise results for education for all children in our region. The Call for Action is available here.