On 17-18 May 2018, the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education (ONIE), Ministry of Education, Thailand organised the Consultation Forum: The Implementation of Policy and Strategies for Building the Learning Cities into Practice at the Royal City Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Forum gathered over 80 participants including directors of 19 provincial ONIE zones; officials from ONIE and the Ministry of Education and relevant stakeholders from other sectors. Representatives from UNESCO Bangkok, SEAMEO Secretariat and SEAMEO CELLL were welcomed onstage to deliver keynote speeches on experience and programmes to promote learning cities. Mr Mai Hong Quan, SEAMEO CELLL Representative briefed the Forum on the Centre’s flagship Project Towards a lifelong learning agenda in Southeast Asian countries and its output in support of the implementation of building learning cities. The Forum also listened to the resource person, Dr Wirun Ninlamot who presented the research result of the Project Capturing Lessons Learned from Building a Prototype Learning City, implemented by ONIE with the aim of expanding the building of learning cities to at least 19 areas in 19 provincial ONIE zones by fiscal year 2018 to 2019. This event served as a platform for directors of 19 provincial ONIE zones to review and report their selection of the learning city areas as well as share good practices of building learning cities in these areas. The Forum concluded fruitfully with the formulation of an action plan for building the learning cities in targeted areas in Thailand.