Brussels, 4 June 2026

UNESCO welcomes Waldorf representatives in Paris

On Friday 29 May 2026, our members spent a day at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, meeting with UNESCO officials for an exchange on the future of education.

UNESCO works on the future of education and education for peace

UNESCO invit­ed our mem­bers, nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Stein­er Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion, to spend a day at the UNESCO head­quar­ters in Paris, since we were vis­it­ing Paris as part of our coun­cil meet­ing between 28 and 31 May 2026. Among UNESCO’s edu­ca­tion pri­or­i­ties are dig­i­tal learn­ing and AI in edu­ca­tion, sus­tain­abil­i­ty edu­ca­tion, teach­ers pro­fes­sion, and edu­ca­tion for peace, top­ics that we can also recog­nise as press­ing chal­lenges for schools. Recog­nis­ing this align­ment, UNESCO showed inter­est in a struc­tured meet­ing and dia­logue with Stein­er Wal­dorf representatives.

Sharing inputs from Waldorf and UNESCO education policies

Dis­rup­tive real­i­ties of today, includ­ing eco­nom­ic, geopo­lit­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal, and health crises, make it hard for chil­dren and young peo­ple to feel excit­ed about their own devel­op­ment or hope­ful for their future. Edu­ca­tion sys­tems play an impor­tant role in address­ing these issues and in empow­er­ing chil­dren and young peo­ple to live and learn, cre­at­ing safe heav­ens for them to devel­op. This was high­light­ed in keynote speech­es by Mar­gare­ta Van Raem­don­ck from ECSWE and Cecil­ia Bar­bi­eri from UNESCO. After this intro­duc­tion, we heard from Matthew Thomas from UNESCO on the impor­tance of teach­ers and their cru­cial role in enabling chil­dren and young peo­ple to learn.

Fifty education experts from ECSWE and UNESCO gathered

The UNESCO’s meet­ing room VI was packed with Stein­er Wal­dorf nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 19 coun­tries, ECSWE’s board and team mem­bers, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Inter­na­tion­al Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf the Edu­ca­tion, the Ped­a­gog­i­cal Sec­tion at Goetheanum, the Euro­pean Net­work of Stein­er Wal­dorf Par­ents, the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Stein­er Wal­dorf Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion, and five UNESCO rep­re­sen­ta­tives. This meet­ing served as a space to con­nect and build on our fruit­ful coop­er­a­tion in the past and as a reminder of the open door for exchange and mutu­al sup­port in the future.

Further reading