Bangkok, 27 November 2012 – The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) will hold the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting from 27 to 29 November 2012 at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand which will bring together education deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, directors general and other high-level education officials of the SEAMEO Member Countries to discuss important issues on education.

High on the agenda are education issues such as Education For All, disaster risk reduction in education, hygiene and water in schools, database on education, and increasing the efficiency of education systems.  The education leaders are also expected to review the 2011-2020 SEAMEO Strategic Plan and recommend specific actions to take for its implementation.

More than 100 participants are expected to attend the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting with delegations from the SEAMEO Member Countries, Associate and Affiliate Members, SEAMEO Centres, and development partners.  For this year’s meeting, SEAMEO will welcome new partners and observers including the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Republic of Korea, the ASEAN-China Centre, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Save the Children Australia.
 
Thailand Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Mr Phongthep Thepkanjana, is expected to grace the opening ceremony of the plenary session on 28 November 2012.  Having been appointed as Minister of Education of Thailand very recently which makes him a member of the SEAMEO Council, Mr Phongthep Thepkanjana is expected to reaffirm Thailand’s commitment to the promotion of cooperation in education, science and culture in Southeast Asia through SEAMEO.  He is also expected to talk on his plans and priorities as he takes leadership of Thailand’s education ministry.

The 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting will also see the launch of the SEAMEO-Australia Education Links Award, sponsored by the Government of Australia which seeks to reward innovative projects or proposals that demonstrate effective and inspiring efforts of individuals and organizations to improve education cooperation and linkages across the SEAMEO region and between SEAMEO Member Countries and Australia.  During the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting, winners of the SEAMEO-Japan Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Award will be given recognition.  This award was launched in early 2012 and is sponsored by the Government of Japan to promote and share best practices in ESD in schools across Southeast Asia.

The High Officials Meeting is an annual event of SEAMEO that serves as forum for discussion on priority issues of SEAMEO, review of proposals, and presentation of accomplishments.  Vietnam is expected to chair the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting.

The result of the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting is to be submitted to the SEAMEO Council, the highest governing body of SEAMEO and consists of the education ministers of the SEAMEO Member Countries.   The next meeting of the SEAMEO education ministers called the 47th SEAMEO Council Conference will be hosted by the Government of Vietnam in Hanoi from 19 to 21 March 2013.  The three-day summit of the SEAMEO education ministers will include a plenary session on various issues and concerns endorsed by the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting, a policy forum on the topic Lifelong Learning, and a ministerial roundtable discussion.  The education ministers’ conference is expected to be twice as big as the High Officials Meeting in terms of participation from Member Countries, Associate and Affiliate Members, diplomatic corps, and development partners. 

The SEAMEO Secretariat which is based in Bangkok organizes the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Thailand.  The 7th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED), and the ASEAN+3 SOM-ED will also be convened back-to-back with the 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting.

Supplement Press Release


Bangkok, 23 November 2012 – Education deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, directors general, and other high-level education officials of the 11 SEAMEO Member Countries will convene for a three-day meeting at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand from 27 to 29 November 2012.  The 35th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting is expected to tackle important issues on education, particularly on accelerating the achievement of Education for All (EFA) goals that are set to be met by 2015 as well as the prospect of moving beyond 2015 and expanding cooperation on EFA in Southeast Asia.

Among others, discussions at the meeting are expected to focus on determining a new spotlight of regional cooperation on education for 2015 and beyond, as well as strengthening the existing ones for the next three years.  Possible options that the high-level education officials could choose are the need to continue EFA and strengthen efforts to address persisting disparities, or going beyond the current EFA goals and agree on a new set of post-2015 education agenda for SEAMEO.

Currently, SEAMEO implements 10 multi-country projects designed to help address the educational needs of disadvantaged population groups in Southeast Asia.  This collaborative approach introduced by SEAMEO in 2008 aims to reach the pockets of learners who are disadvantaged and those that are in difficult-to-reach communities in many parts of the region.  Projects that were launched by SEAMEO include tracking mechanism for unreached population groups, transition support for learners with disabilities, multigrade teaching, setting up of community learning centres in rural areas, and many others.  These projects are expected to contribute to achieving the goals of Education for All in Southeast Asia by 2015.

Several international organizations and development partners are expected to join the discussion to share experiences and propose initiatives in support of the Education For All target and the promotion of education cooperation in Southeast Asia.

The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education and Save the Children Australia will share a model on disaster risk reduction in education while UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office will present continued support to a SEAMEO research on water and sanitation in schools as well as the setting up of education database for SEAMEO.  In support of generating evidence for policy guidance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) will propose a regional study on increasing the efficiency of education systems.  This collaboration is expected to match OECD’s vast experience in education policy analysis and SEAMEO’s a strong commitment to improving education.

Related initiatives in support of Education for All and the promotion of education in SEAMEO also come from governments such as SEAMEO-Australia Education Links Award sponsored by the Government of Australia which seeks to reward innovative projects or proposals to improve education cooperation and linkages, and the SEAMEO-Japan Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Award sponsored by the Government of Japan to promote and share best practices in ESD.


The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) is a chartered international organization, established in 1965, to promote cooperation in education, science and culture in Southeast Asia. SEAMEO works towards achieving this through the establishment of networks and partnerships, provision of intellectual forums for policy makers and experts, and promotion of sustainable human resource development. SEAMEO develops and nurtures the capacities of teachers and school managers in Southeast Asia through its network of 20 specialist institutions that undertake training and research programmes in various fields of education, science and culture.

For more information, please contact:

Ms Piyapa Su-angavatin, External Relations Officer piyapa@seameo.org
Ms Abigail Cuales Lanceta, Programme Officer abigail@seameo.org
The SEAMEO Secretariat
MLP Centenary Bldg., 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2391-0144 Email: secretariat@seameo.org | Website:  www.seameo.org

Or the Ministry/Department of Education and the SEAMEO Regional Centres in your country