User:Jojit fb/2016 International Conference on Inclusive Education and Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

From February 18 to 20, 2016, the International Conference on Inclusive Education and Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education was held at the Waterfront-Manila Pavillion Hotel in Manila, Philippines. It was organized by 170+ Talaytayan MLE, an organization fervently advocating Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines since 2008 with the help of the Philippines' Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education. In addition, the UNESCO Bangkok endorsed the conference.

The theme of the conference which was "From MDG/EFA 2015 to SDG 2030" reflected a transition from Millennium Development Goals/Education For All in 2015 to Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, which were all designed and managed by either United Nations or UNESCO. The conference gave way to explore and review the objectives of SDG for education especially the fourth goal, which "ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." The event sought to answer questions on how the postulations, applications, rules and promotions of MTB-MLE relate to SDG Goal number 4.

When the organizers discovered the value of the Wikipedia in popularizing Philippine-based languages through the presentation done by Michael Ong of the Sinirangan Bisaya Wikimedia Community during one of their forums, they thought of inviting someone from the Wikimedia community to the conference who would expound the impact of the promotion of languages in Wikipedia and other related projects especially the languages in the Philippines that have Wikipedia editions namely Cebuano, Central Bicolano, Chavacano de Zamboanga, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog and Waray. Michael could not attend the conference, therefore he recommended Filipino Wikimedian Jojit Ballesteros to do the presentation. In line with this, the organizers sent an invitation to Jojit who was given a speaking slot during the second day of the conference (February 19 at 8:00am).

During Jojit's presentation, he highlighted the statistics comparing the Philippine-based editions of Wikipedia as well as the importance of contributing freely in Wikipedia and how the audience themselves can improve the existing articles. He also talked about the activities regarding the Wikimedia movement in the Philippines during the past years. After the presentation, some of the participants asked Jojit about his presentation.