On 26-27 July, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) organised its annual Centre Directors Meeting at Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand in the blended mode. The event was attended by SEAMEO Centre Directors with professional staff, and 26 SEAMEO partners including UN agencies, government agencies, universities, development agencies and others. After the opening ceremony, SEAMEO Secretariat presented on last fiscal year’s programmes and activities of the organisation. These included special efforts to fight COVID-19-induced education disruption, and measures for learning recovery. An example is the DTeEm, an online teacher training platform, that was built to ensure the continuity of learning for marginalised children, particularly children with disabilities.
The programmes continued with centre’s presentations. Eighteen working papers that reported accomplished programmes and proposed new ones were reviewed and endorsed for presenting at the upcoming annual SEAMEO High Officials Meeting.
A back-to-back forum was organised on the afternoon of 27 July, themed SEAMEO Science and Culture Action Agenda 2021-2025. This was a preliminary meeting to identify Flagship Programmes under Priority Areas of Science and Culture for SEAMEO Strategic Plan 2021-2030.
SEAMEO had earlier identified seven Priority Areas in Education, Science and Culture to encourage collaborative activities among centres and countries. The goals in Science are Health literacy: Psychosocial and mental health, Natural resource and environmental management: Circular economy; Climate change adaptation; Biodiversity and biotechnology; Food security and nutrition and precision agriculture; Data science, analytics, and AI; and STEM education for future workforces. The goals in Culture are Creation, tradition, and innovation; Ethics and legal framework; Resilience and traditional knowledge; Peace and inter-cultural understanding; Literacy and appreciation in the modern world; Harnessing technology for heritage/culture preservation; and Heritage science.
