SEAMEO ICC Regional Workshop

Enhancing inclusive and equitable quality education, despite much effort being made, has always remained a big issue facing education systems especially in developing countries. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations also emphasizes this issue. We can aim to solve this issue through comprehensive, strategic, and practice-based reforms of teacher management and development systems. These reforms are in line with Priority No. 5 among SEAMEO 7 Priority Areas in the education agenda 2015-2035, which is revitalizing teacher education in Southeast Asia. In addition, other efforts in improving skills and reducing disparities among young learners are needed.

Goal No. 4 in the Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018, the United Nations indicated that “more than half of children and adolescents worldwide are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. Refocused efforts are needed to improve the quality of education. Disparities in education along the lines of gender, urban-rural location and other dimensions still run deep, and more investments in infrastructure are required, especially in LDCs”. The report also mentioned that more trained teachers are needed for quality education. It is relevant to mention there have been some projects related to topics conducted in different countries, and different groups of countries, yet there are few overall researches or projects in regional scale to raise this issue and share lessons among SEA countries.

This context suggests more regional collaborations among SEA countries to identify and address the issue facing the region, given the diverse nature of the population that our system is working with. The recommendations that the project aims at will emphasize the role of leadership and management in a series of issues related to this topic, such as teacher education, skill training, lifelong learning, filling the gaps of disparities, and more.

This topic is worth calling for in inter-center collaborative project which will gather educational administrators and experts in the region and mobilize the contribution of SEAMEO centers that are working on educational leadership and management, special education, and lifelong learning.

• To share knowledge, experience and lessons learned among Southeast Asian countries in addressing the issue of inclusive and equitable quality education;
• To propose recommendations in terms of innovative leadership and management in education to improve inclusive and equitable quality education to be adopted and applied in SEAMEO member countries;
• To enhance regional partnership and inter-center collaborations in the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

This workshop is led by SEAMEO Regional Training Center (SEAMEO RETRAC) with funding support from SEAMEO Associate Member Countries and in collaboration with SEAMEO Secretariat, SEAMEO Centers and international partners.

Presenters and participants of the Regional Workshop are high officials and representatives from SEAMEO member countries, SEAMEO Secretariat, SEAMEO Regional Centers and international partners.

The Regional Workshop are open for all educators, school administrators, teachers in SEA Regions and beyond through SEAMEO RETRAC YouTube Live Channel.