The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) has gone a long way since its inception on Nov. 30, 1965 by Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It is an inter-governmental organization formed to promote regional cooperation in education, science and culture among the 11 countries of Southeast Asia.
SEAMEO’s mission is to enhance regional understanding, cooperation and unity of purpose among member countries for a better quality of life. It is run by the SEAMEO Council, which until this week was headed by Singapore Minister of Education Chan Chun Sing, who has turned over the position to Vice President Sara Duterte, the Philippines secretary of education.
This new position which VP Sara is taking on with renewed enthusiasm to serve will both put the Philippines in the limelight in terms of educational concerns at a time when technological innovations are racing, and raise her stock as a leader of the Asian region.
Duterte has a huge mountain of work to do ahead of her in SEAMEO, an organization which for decades has maintained its work and aspirations for development of the Asian region to make lives better in quality and equity in education, preventive health education, culture and tradition, information and communications technology, languages, poverty alleviation and agriculture and natural resources.
“For decades, SEAMEO has been a proactive partner of the Department of Education by offering multiple forms of support to our teachers, educators, researchers, students and schools through its three regional centers: Regional Center of Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH), Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and Regional Center for Public Health, Hospital Administration, Environmental and Occupational Health (SEAMEO TROPMED),” Duterte said.
But those are just the three regional centers located in the Philippines. The Council also operates 23 other regional centers or networks across Southeast Asia that undertake training and research programs in various fields of education, science and culture and which have their own governing boards. As SEAMEO Council chairperson, Vice President Duterte will have to monitor and guide these networks to see that they are fulfilling their mandates.
One thing going for Duterte in this new role is that SEAMEO is a forward-looking organization with more than 50 years of experience in its work. It has distilled its mission into “Seven Priority Areas of SEAMEO in Education” which covers the years 2015-2035. The Council, under Education Secretary Duterte, has a solid roadmap to follow in crafting policies and operational procedures.
The Philippines just hosted the SEAMEO Council conference in Manila, Feb. 8 to 10, during which Duterte stressed the need to “act now” to address the challenges that learners face globally. She stressed that countries cannot afford to “waste more time” as she noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has stalled the growth of global education for more than two years, making recovery a gargantuan task.
Duterte intends to make a difference in alleviating “education inequality, with younger, vulnerable, and disadvantaged children among the most affected.” She exhorted the region’s education leaders not to allow Asian children to “miss out on the beauty and benefits of learning and the wonders of being able to use it to positively impact” the ASEAN and the world.
We hope Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte succeeds in her new role as SEAMEO Council chairperson, as her service in this area will benefit the Philippines as much as it will advance the educational concerns of the region.