CESON has contributed as a partner in conducting two international conferences in Kathmandu.
The first conference was the International Symposium on Education for Rural Transformation,
organized on 17-19 September 2014. The main theme of the conference was Reengineering
Education for Flexible Learning and Social Justice. Kathmandu University School of Education
and the Institute of International Education (IIE), Stockholm University, Sweden, were the main
collaborators in organizing this conference. The conference was financially supported by the
IIE. The main objective of the conference was to contribute to the positive, equitable, and
sustainable development of rural areas in the context of emerging local, national, and global
challenges and opportunities and to take education as a key means for achieving this purpose.
About 90 papers were presented and discussed at the conference. The participants were from 14
different countries across all continents. The outcome of the conference was also significant; we
could publish a special issue (dedicated to Education for Rural Transformation) of the flagship
journal of Kathmandu University School of Education ‘Journal of Education and Research’
volume 14, issue 2, 2014.

CESON also contributed, in collaboration with Kathmandu University School of Education, to
organizing the 12 th biennial conference of the Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA).
This conference was to be organized in Kathmandu in 2020, but because of the Covid-19
pandemic, this conference had to be postponed, and it was later organized on 25-26 September
2021. The conference theme was Valuing Diversity in Education: Formal and Informal Learning
Across Cultures. The main objective of the conference was to call for realizing the existence and
practice of multiple modes of learning and their importance in social transformation. Another
objective was to create a discourse against the ongoing trend of standardizing educational
structure, design, and practice across the globe and calling for their diversification per the local
need and context. A total of 336 scholars participated in the conference, in which 183 papers
were presented, and nine panel discussions were organized. The presenters and participants were
from 24 countries, viz. Nepal, Japan, Bangladesh, China, Canada, Philippines, United State,
United Kingdom, South Korea, Hong Kong, Iraqi, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Russia,
Taiwan, Thailand, Austria, Finland, Malaysia, South Africa, Pakistan, and Benin. The majority
were from different Asian countries. However, there were participants from all continents.