Finland Present at the World Federation of the Deaf and Education International Conferences held in South Africa
Two major conferences were held in South Africa in July. The first one was the 16th World Federation of the Deaf Conference, between the 18th and 24th of July in Durban. The second one was the Educational International Conference, which was held between the 22nd and 26th of July in Cape Town.
The World Federation of the Deaf Conference drew about 2 100 participants from 125 countries. Finnish rap artist Signmark (Marko Vuoriheimo) and the Finnish Ambassador to South Africa Tiina Myllyntausta also attended the conference.
For the past four years Markku Jokinen has been the President of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). The new President was now chosen from Australia.
Signmark performed at the opening ceremony of the conference with his Silent Shout act. The theme of the conference was “Global Deaf Reneissance”.
The deaf community in South Africa was encouraged to continue its work in demanding quality education systems for deaf children with appropriate teacher training, as well as interpreter training programmes.
The chairman of the Deaf Federation of South Africa Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen commented the conference at the opening: “Getting an event like this in South Africa 17 years ago would have been impossible because of Apartheid”.
Education International Conference
In Cape Town, Education International Conference drew over 2 000 participants from 167 countries.
The Embassy of Finland and The Trade Union of Education in Finland organised a seminar on the Finnish education system and results. The brief was give by the trade union’s Chairman Olli Luukkainen, and the head of education policy Heljä Misukka.
The Education International Conference was also attended by educational professionals from the Ministry of Education, regional administration and trade unions from South Africa.
“The challenges faced by President Jacob Zuma and the South African government are big. The first thing that is always mentioned is the significance of education. The Rainbow Nation still has a long way to go, but Finland’s rise to one of the top nations in terms of education did not happen in a year, or even ten years,” concludes Ambassador Myllyntausta.