Bangkok, Thailand | Jolin Nguyen: SEA-PLM's Annual Regional Technical Workshop took place from 22-26 August—the first technical activity of the SEA-PLM programme—heralding the preparation for the second assessment cycle, SEA-PLM 2024. The workshop witnessed the collective commitment toward SEA-PLM 2024 with a common goal of attaining the UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. It underpins the program's three pillars, intending to strengthen and build the capacities of participating countries for cognitive test and questionnaire development.
The five-day workshop has set the momentum to coordinate and advance the preparation for SEA-PLM 2024 in alignment with agreements made during the Regional Steering Committee meeting earlier this year. Attendees of the hybrid workshop comprised honorary member countries, national project managers, team members, and domain experts from all six participating countries of SEA-PLM 2019.
Facilitators of the workshop were the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, and the SEA-PLM Secretariat. Technical experts shared essential insights and good practices on item and questionnaire development to help prepare for the trial-testing phase scheduled for 2023. National team members also reviewed the procedure and criteria for developing new instruments for the next assessment cycle.
Bilateral consultations between the SEA-PLM Secretariat and member countries took place to support and address the different needs of each participating country. Along with these consultations, KEDI and KICE, and UNICEF Innocenti provided country-specific advice on capacity-building activities and the Global Citizenship project, respectively.
During the closing remarks, the Director of the SEAMEO Secretariat, Dr. Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela, emphasized that effective collaboration is key to ensuring the field trial-testing phase materializes on time in preparation for the main regional survey. She also expressed appreciation to the project donors, namely, the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) through the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF) and UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (UNICEF EAPRO) as Co-chairs of the SEA-PLM Secretariat.
