On 11 February 2017, the SEAMEO-University of Tsukuba Symposium V was organised at Tokyo campus, University of Tsukuba, Japan. The symposium, which was jointly hosted by the University of Tsukuba, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT), saw the participation of more than 30 researchers – educators from 15 countries all over the world.
With the theme “SEAMEO Priority Areas and Collaborations”, the symposium commenced with a presentation about “SEAMEO 7 Priority Areas” by Dr Ethel Agnes P. Valenzuela, Deputy Director, SEAMEO Secretariat, in which she pointed out the 7 foci of SEAMEO activities in 20 years (2015-2035), SEAMEO Education Agenda Roadmap as well as challenges facing the organisation in achieving the goals. Following her talk were the presentations by SEAMEO centres.
As the representative of SEAMEO CELLL, Mr Mai Hong Quan, Deputy Manager of Research & Training delivered a presentation about SEAMEO CELLL’s activities in pursuance of SEAMEO 7 Priority Areas. With the role of a regional centre for lifelong learning, SEAMEO CELLL mainly focuses on the SEAMEO priority areas of “Addressing Barriers to Inclusion” (Priority 2), “Resiliency in the Face of Emergency” (Priority 3) and “Promoting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)” (Priority 4). Namely, the on-going flagship project “Towards a Lifelong Learning Agenda in Southeast Asian Countries” directly addresses SEAMEO Priority 2, last November’s “ASEM LLL Hub Conference 2016: Lifelong Learning and Resilience in Disaster Management: Asian and European Perspectives” corresponds with Priority 3 and various capacity building activities for Community Learning Center teachers are good examples of reaching for Priority 4. In addition, he welcomed chances of cooperation from all interested partners, insisting that collaboration is imperative for the development targets to be soon realised.
At the end of the presentation, on behalf of SEAMEO CELLL, Mr Quan expressed his appreciation to MEXT and the University of Tsukuba, especially the Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development (CRICED) for organising the event and giving the participants good opportunity to discuss and learn from each other.
