1. Dato’ Dr Ahamad bin Sipon Director-Designate SEAMEO Secretariat
Education Networking in Southeast Asia during the Colloquium for Humboldt Fellows and Awardees in Thailand “Regional Networking – a Chance for Science and Scholarship” November 2007, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Dato’ Dr Ahamad bin Sipon
Director-Designate
SEAMEO Secretariat

2. Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO)
42nd year
Governed by SEAMEO Council
- Brunei Darussalam - Cambodia
- Lao PDR - Indonesia
- Malaysia - Myanmar
- Philippines - Singapore
- Thailand - Timor Leste; and
- Vietnam
Held back-to-back with the ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting

3. SEAMEO Eight Associate Members An Affiliate Member
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
New Zealand
the Netherlands
Norway; and
Spain
An Affiliate Member
International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) based in Norway

4. SEAMEO Oversees 15 SEAMEO Regional Centres
Tropical Biology (Indonesia)
History and Tradition (Myanmar)
Educational Innovation and Technology (Philippines)
Education in Science and Mathematics (Malaysia)
Languages Centre (Singapore)

5. SEAMEO Regional Training Centre (Vietnam)
Higher Education and Development (Thailand)
Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Philippines)
Archaeology and Fine Arts (Thailand)
Community Nutrition (Indonesia)

6. SEAMEO Microbiology, Parasitology and Entomology (Malaysia)
Public Health (Philippines)
Tropical Medicine (Thailand)
Open Learning Centre (Indonesia)
Vocational and Technical Education and Training (Brunei Darussalam)

7. SEAMEO One Network: Tropical Medicine and Public Health (Thailand)
Secretariat in Bangkok

8. SEAMEO and Science Education in Southeast Asia
Member States move towards the sciences, if not improving on their science curricula and perspective
Recognizes the need to have adequate resources

9. SEAMEO and Science Education in Southeast Asia
Keeps track of the fast changing trends in education
Recognizes the need to help member countries improve their human resource capabilities

10. SEAMEO and Science Education in Southeast Asia
Council expressed very enthusiastic prospects of building the region’s human infrastructure in education, science and culture
Science education in member countries respects the necessity and significance of values in teaching and learning

11. Integration of ICT in Education
Improvements in integrating (ICT) in educational systems
Concerns on structural and geographical challenges

12. Integration of ICT in Education
Indonesia, launched the Indonesia National ICT Education Network or Jardiknas
Stresses the need to address ICT development in hardware, software and teacher training

13. Integration of ICT in Education
Defining the roles of both the government and the private sector in sharing the responsibility of developing ICT networks for education purposes
Concerns in protecting national values and in ensuring safe and ethical use of the Internet

14. Integration of ICT in Education
Singapore shared its ICT master plan that integrates ICT into the curriculum
Centres promote technology-aided education and instruction to ease teaching and learning and to introduce and integrate the technology into the structure and system of education

15. Integration of ICT in Education
SEAMEO INNOTECH currently uses ICT-aided education such as Text-to-teach and iFLEX
SEAMEO SEAMOLEC conducts training on technology and web-based distance learning such as the conduct of the web-based course development using moodels

16. Integration of ICT in Education
SEAMEO VOCTECH is strengthening regional networks that offer training on managing ICT in institutions and maintaining competitive computer learning

17. Education for sustainable development
ESD is about changing values and behaviors while emphasizing the core concepts of sustainable development such as
knowledge in global warming, ozone depletion and preserving biodiversity,
managing agriculture, fisheries and rural development,

18. Education for sustainable development
promoting health, sanitation and environmentally responsible lifestyles and
inculcating traditional Southeast Asian values in the midst of changing social influences
Human Values-based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education in Southeast Asia (HVBWSE) that involved an inter-centre collaboration, with the support of the UN-HABITAT

19. Education for sustainable development
Conducted a training course aimed to develop the competencies of teachers and education professionals by sensitizing them to HVBWSE, try out lesson plans and disseminate the knowledge to other teachers
At the ministerial level and through 15 Regional Centres, ESD concerns are promoted through values, reorientation of education programmes and developing awareness

20. Education for sustainable development
SEAMEO SEARCA proposes to enhance and strengthen the agricultural curricula of universities in the region
SEAMEO BIOTROP is engaged in research and testing to sustain the tropical ecosystem and to find solutions to environmental problems.

21. Education for sustainable development
The work of both SEAMEO SEARCA in agricultural competitiveness and natural resource management and SEAMEO BIOTROP in preserving ecology have a great significance in contributing to food security and poverty reduction

22. Tropical medicine, medical research and public health
SEAMEO Tropical Medicine and Public Health Network or SEAMEO TROPMED/ Network has four regional centres attached to universities in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines
Doing specialized scientific pursuits in tropical medicine, community nutrition, public health, and parasitology, entomology and microbiology

23. Tropical medicine, medical research and public health
The Mahidol University Faculty of Tropical Medicine in Bangkok hosts the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Tropical Medicine and the central network office
Germany, through the GTZ and the GTZ BACKUP Initiative, has an extensive partnership with this network, in particular, in its development programmes in capacity-building at the institutional and individual levels

24. Tropical medicine, medical research and public health
Germany is a partner in the SEAMEO TROPMED Network’s programmes with the National Institute of Public Health in Cambodia and in hospital management training in Indonesia
It also supports the network in strengthening the capacity of partner countries in improving a more effective global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and in preventive education against these infectious diseases

25. Tropical medicine, medical research and public health
SEAMEO TROPMED Regional Centres are also supported by partners such as Japan, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and a host of other international research and medical networks within and beyond the region.

26. Mathematics and Science Education
Conducted a workshop on special mathematics and science high schools
Analysed examination questions to establish the schools’ expectations and to compare their varying standards

27. Mathematics and Science Education
Analysed Students’ performance in the exams was to establish and identify the factors that contribute to the gaps between expectation and performance
Agreed to collaborate in improving the tests and helping regular schools improve math and science education

28. Mathematics and Science Education
The experiences and success of these schools to improve the teaching of science and mathematics in the regular secondary school system
Vietnam will host a regional seminar to discuss more deeply the quality of science and mathematics education in the region

29. Regional Cooperation in High Education
Plan for a structured framework or network of higher education integration to raise awareness, list down priority areas of concern and organize summits to improve higher education
Bring together the initiatives of Ministers of Education

30. Regional Cooperation in High Education
Brings about a more common area of addressing the needs of the higher education sector, specifically in improving university governance, quality assurance, and functional cooperation through research and training
Will not only provide a common space for higher education institutions and experts but the Southeast Asian region as an educational hub as well

31. Conclusion
SEAMEO does not bask in its success in some areas of education, especially in science
In majority of SEAMEO member countries, there is still an utter lack of learning facilities and infrastructure, both in school buildings and teaching staff and competencies

32. Conclusion
The challenges will always be there in helping these member countries, but SEAMEO is always hopeful because of the many opportunities that help the organization improve education

33. THANK YOU