Japan Education Forum for Sustainable Development Goals (16th JEF for SDGs) Realities and Challenges of Education for Sustainable Development for the Next Generation: Focusing on Early Childhood
Since 2004, Japan Education Forum (JEF) has been providing a platform for knowledge sharing and exchange on international cooperation on education. The annual forum attracts policy makers, academia, programme planners and practitioners from various sectors across the globe. A key aspect of JEF is to share good practices from Japan and across the world to help strengthen quality practice. JEF for SDGs 16 was organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, Hiroshima University, and Tsukuba University supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Each year the JEF has a theme and the theme this tear was “Realities and Challenges of Education for Sustainable Development for the Next Generation: Focusing on Early Childhood
Opening remarks were made by two senior government officials. Senior Vice Minister Mr. Tomoko Ukishima, the State Minister for Education highlighted the critical importance of the early years and the commitment of Government of Japan to offer free ECE for the ages 3 to 5 across the country. In his address; Deputy Director-General, International Cooperation Bureau, Mr. Hiroshi Matsuura emphasized the Government of Japan’s commitment during its presidency of the G20, to education and human resource development, including the early childhood. He shared the example of Egypt-Japan Education Partnership whose focus includes pre-school and primary education where for the last 20 years, JICA volunteers have been actively providing technical assistance to daycare and kindergarten programmes in Egypt. During the morning session, Dr. Lynette Okengo from Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN) made a keynote speech on the realities and challenges of ECE in Africa while Professor Takashi Hamano from Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, gave keynote speeches that presented the context of early childhood in Japan. The afternoon session was a panel discussion that provided an opportunity to share the status of ECE in South East Asia, Japan, Ireland and Singapore under the theme of “the possibility of ECCE programs for the next generation.”
The session attracted over 120 participants including diplomats from various embassies, government officials, representatives of organizations of developmental aid, academicians, students, members of NGOs and NPOs, and the public.
The JEF played a critical role in generating knowledge that the opportunity to make a contribution to the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (CICE) special seminar which was a T20 associated event (https://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/cice/?p=6847) and the drafting of the T20 Policy brief (https://t20japan.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/t20-japan-tf1-3-early-childhood-development-education-and-care.pdf)