Cultural diversity in an increasingly multicultural society is fast becoming a major issue for many of us, and it's a subject to be addressed at an upcoming international conference: Global Cultural Diversity Congress 2000, to be held in Cardiff, Wales, on March 20th to 23rd.

The three themes of the congress - eliminating racial discrimination, leadership, and unity and difference - will be dealt with on consecutive days. The congress will include keynote addresses, plenary sessions, thinktanks and workshops. Delegates can chose from up to 140 workshops covering many aspects of multiculturalism in both the public and private sectors.

Of particular interest to educators are the 20 education-related workshops. Topics include gender inequality in education, ethnic minorities at third level and barriers to educational achievement. A workshop on multilingualism and bilingualism promises to examine the future potential of multilingual education (including Irish), while another on curriculum will consider the key issues in the construction of curricula which meet the needs of culturally diverse societies.

Educational establishments, at all levels, can play an important role in building positive intercommunity relations, and one workshop focuses on this issue. Others look at tackling school exclusion and truancy, frameworks to counter racism within schools, assessment material (for speech and language therapists) for bilingual children and the role of teachers in supporting indigenous and ethnic minority students.

Also on the agenda are business, healthcare, policing, the treatment of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, statutory race equality bodies and the Northern Ireland Equality Commission.

For further details contact: tel: 0044 1207 605 9604; fax: 0044 1207 605 9603; e-mail: gcdc2000@btinternet.com