UNESCO, UNICEF, The World Bank and SEAMEO will be presenting their views on
Open Learning and Distance Education with an eye into the future.

Wednesday, 23 June, 11.00-12.30, Hall A

Panelists
Elaine Furniss, Senior Advisor, Education, UNICEF
Mike Potashnik, Head, Educational and Technology Team, Human Development Department, The World Bank
Komlavi Francesc Seddoh, Director, Division of Higher Education, UNESCO
Suparak Racha Intra, Director, South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Secretariat

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to share the experiences of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) with other speakers from UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank at the ICDE's 19th World Conference on the theme: The New Educational Frontiers: Teaching and Learning in a Networked World.

SEAMEO was established in 1965 as an intergovernmental organization in Southeast Asia. The purpose of the organization is to promote cooperation among Southeast Asian nations through education, science, and culture.

The organization's structure consists of three main components, namely: the Council, the Secretariat, and the Centres. The Council of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education is the policy-making body of the Organization. The Secretariat acts as the executive arm of the Council and also the central body or Headquarters of the Organization. The highly specialized regional centres carry out the programmes and activities of SEAMEO.

SEAMEO, at present, has all ten countries in the region as its members and another six outside the region as Associate Members. There are fourteen regional centres scattered throughout the region.

SEAMEO is located in a region of ten countries with a population of about five hundred million and varying degrees of development. The countries value education and human resource development as a priority. They, however, cannot cope with the increasing demands and expectations in both quantity and quality because of resource constraints. Many countries have initiated and developed distance education and open learning system, which are incorporated into their education systems.

After more than three decades, SEAMEO had trained more than three thousand participants as key personnel in education for the region, mostly through the centre based training. The Ministers and senior officials of education have used the SEAMEO Network umbrella to develop a sense of regionalism and interdependence. The region expects SEAMEO to play a coordinating and leadership role on the development of distance education and open learning and create the expected impact on its Member Countries. Distance Education and Open Learning thus has been a major education trend in the region and at the same time a challenge for SEAMEO.

In early 90's, the Council adopted the policy that Open Learning and Distance Education be initiated and incorporated into the SEAMEO's service delivery system. SEAMEO has been conceptualized as the Open and Distance Learning Network (ODLN). All Centres are encouraged to explore and initiate distance delivery mode of their services and programmes. The SEAMEO Regional Centre for Open Learning Education was established to coordinate and assist Member Countries.

SEAMEO is viewed as a network of fourteen Regional Centres, ten Member Countries, six Associate Member Countries, and various other relevant institutions. The SEAMEO Net was established in 1998, making use of the advancement of IT technology in order to strengthen SEAMEO as a network and to further facilitate SEAMEO's role and function as ODLN for training the future workforce of its Member Countries.

Several other relevant programmes and activities have been launched through SEAMEONet to achieve the goals of SEAMEO ODLN. These relevant projects include SEAMEO Sister School Network, SEAMEO Virtual Library, SEAMEO Leadership and Management Development Institute, SEAMEO SEARCA University Consortium, SEAMEO Marketing Project, and the SEAMEO ODLN Project.

SEAMEO is in the process developing itself as an IT Network Organization, using open learning and distance education as a strategic tool. The Organization has envisioned itself as SEAMEO ODLN through all SEAMEO Centres to render their programmes and activities and to eventually have the impact on the sustainable development of open learning and distance education in Southeast Asia.

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