Theme:  "Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Southeast Asia”

Thematic Strands:
-    Promoting children’s rights to education and early childhood care and education;  
-    Improving access to early childhood care and education, especially for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
-    Appreciating cultural diversity in the provision of ECCE services;
-    Improving quality of ECCE services; and
-    Improving regulating mechanism and standard-setting framework;

The SEAMEO Jasper Research Award was established in 1990 with the support of the Government of Canada as a way of recognizing exemplary research conducted in the region by Southeast Asian nationals. The yearly Award aims to encourage young scholars to conduct researches on a relevant theme on social development in Southeast Asia and to facilitate continued interaction and knowledge-sharing among Southeast Asian and Canadian researchers.

The Theme for the 2010 Research Award Competition emphasizes the role that Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) plays in realizing the Education For All Goals and the Millennium Development Goals. The Dakar Framework for Action in 2000 reaffirmed the importance of early childhood by including the development of early childhood care and education as the first of its six main goals. Participating countries committed themselves to “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.”
    
Early Childhood Care and Education programmes cover nutrition, health, early child care and pre-school education. These programmes aim to provide children's holistic development and assist their transition to formal schooling. The greatest difficulty faced by countries in their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilisation of resources. This is particularly evident in developing countries where early childhood care and education may be overshadowed by other pressing priorities.
    
Generally, the ECCE workforce is made up of pre-school teachers, care workers, informal care-takers and other professionals. Adequate training and work conditions are essential for them to integrate the content and practice of early childhood care and education and address the transition to formal schooling. The service setting and physical infrastructure may vary greatly from country to country.
    
In many countries including those in Southeast Asia, early childhood care and education is the concern of several government agencies, particularly those in charge of education, social welfare and health. The multi-faceted nature of early childhood care and education gives rise to the challenge of effectively coordinating provision of policy development and implementation across different sectors. Coordination issues include coherent regulation, funding and staffing schemes for children’s care and education. Effective coordination, thus, remains one of the major challenges facing governments of both developed and developing countries trying to promote a holistic approach to early childhood.

Early childhood care education is considered important in inclusive education and in accelerating the on-going education reforms in many countries. The early childhood care and education in Southeast Asia is even more important in a regional landscape with different development levels and cultural diversities to integrate and interface early learning with the formal basic education.

The 2010 Research Award recognizes the research that explores concepts, models and practical experiences on early childhood care and education in an individual Southeast Asian country or in the region. Researches might cover one or more thematic strands, including promoting children’s rights and improving their access to early childhood care and education, especially for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children; appreciating cultural diversity in ECCE service provision; improving the quality of ECCE services; and improving regulating mechanism and standard setting framework of early childhood care and education.

The researches may include traditional and innovative models, best practices in early learning provision, non-traditional and innovative delivery modalities, materials, assessment methods as well as documented practices and cases of effective interventions in the formal and non-formal education streams.

The 2010 Research Award

The 2010 Award winner will be notified by the SEAMEO Secretariat and will be presented a Plaque of Recognition during the 46th SEAMEO Council Conference, scheduled in January 2011 in Brunei Darussalam.

The winner also receives a travel fellowship to disseminate results of the winning research in relevant Canadian training and research institutions. The fellowship includes 8-day travel expenses to Canada (inclusive of travel time). The fellowship would include assistance in travel arrangements as well as health and travel insurance. The fellowship travel is expected to be undertaken within 12 months from the date of the 2010 winning research announcement.  

Eligible Applicants

- A national of a SEAMEO Member Country*;
-Completed a master’s or a doctorate degree;
- Not more than 55 years of age at the time of application;
- Physically fit to travel to Canada; Certification by a competent   physician  may be requested before travelling;
- For studies/projects conducted by a team of researchers, only one author will be eligible for nomination. The submission should include a written note from the co-author(s) waiving any claim to the award, in case the research is selected; and a statement indicating the nominee’s level of responsibility (in percentage) for the research work.

The Research Entry

- The research must be a completed research study/project conducted in Southeast Asia (covering one country or more in the region) relating to the Early Childhood Care and Education in Southeast Asia and covering one or more of the thematic strands;
- The research must have been completed within the past three years;
- If the research paper has already been published, the revised paper must incorporate some new aspects/dimensions and/or updated information, analysis and findings;
- All submissions (including photo captions and other materials) must be in the English Language;
- Researches conducted for graduate/post-graduate theses or doctoral dissertations will not be accepted.

Selection Process

A Selection Committee composed of representatives of relevant international organizations, experts in the field covered by the theme, previous SEAMEO-Jasper Award winners and officials of SEAMEO will convene to review the submitted entries. Selection will be based on the quality of the research report, its relevance to the theme and thematic strands, its relevance to improving education in Southeast Asia and its potentials for promoting better understanding between Canada and Southeast Asia.

Submission of Application

- Completed application form (Download the form here)
- Seven (7) copies of the summary of the research paper (not more than 20 pages, inclusive of the rationale, objectives, methodology, findings, conclusions, recommendations and references/bibliography)
- Seven (7) copies of the research abstract (one-page)
- One (1) copy of the complete research paper
- Hard copy and electronic submissions must reach the SEAMEO Secretariat on or before 30 November 2010
- The submissions should be clearly marked and addressed to:

2010 SEAMEO-Jasper Research Award
The Director
SEAMEO Secretariat
Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building
920 Sukhumvit Road
Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Tel:    +66 (0) 2391-0144
Fax:    +66 (0) 2381-2587
E-mail:    secretariat@seameo.org