Displaying items by tag: SEAMEO

On January 15, 2025, the 13th ASEAN-SEAMEO Secretariats Coordination Meeting took place at the ASEAN Secretariat Office in Jakarta, Indonesia. The gathering served as a significant platform for ASEAN and SEAMEO to discuss advancements in the region’s education agenda and review key initiatives, such as the outcomes of the annual regional meetings in education and related activities. 

The meeting delved into several pivotal topics including updates from both the ASEAN and SEAMEO Secretariats. The discussion featured detailed presentations on the progress of the SEA-PLM programme, the ASEAN-UK SAGE Program, SEA-DREAM Programme, and the Roadmap for the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Southeast Asia. The meeting was attended by Ms. Rodora Turalde-Babaran, Director of the ASEAN Secretariat’s Human Development Directorate, Ms Amalia Serrano, Dika,  Datuk Dr. Habibah Abdul Rahim, Director of SEAMEO Secretariat, Mr John Arnold Siena, Deputy Director for Programme and Development of SEAMEO Secretariat, Mr Emiljohn Santillas, Policy and Planning Specialist Alejandro Ibanez, SEA-PLM Programme Manager, and Mr Ansgar Shaefer.

The ASEAN-UK SAGE initiative focuses on advancing girls’ education by addressing foundational learning gaps, supporting out-of-school girls, and promoting digital skills, with successful pilot project engagements in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Timor-Leste. Similarly, the SEA-DREAM Programme, supported by Wellcome Trust and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, aims to enhance health and climate-related research excellence in Southeast Asia through mentorship, regional collaboration, and the development of future research leaders. The meeting also underscored the progress on the Roadmap for the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on ECCE, a critical step towards ensuring high-quality early childhood care and education across Southeast Asia, through multi-stakeholder collaboration.

During the session, Mr Alejandro Ibanez provided an overview of the SEA-PLM achievements and ongoing efforts. SEA-PLM serves as the region's large-scale learning assessment mechanism reporting on SDG 4.1.1 indicators, playing a crucial role in monitoring education quality and equity across SEAMEO Member Countries. 

Key SEA-PLM milestones presented at the meeting included the successful completion of the 2024 Main Survey. This extensive data collection effort encompassed surveys from students, parents, teachers, and school principals, with assessment materials translated into 11 national languages. Other highlights included the establishment of the SEA-PLM Technical Experts Network to enhance quality assurance processes and the launch of various thematic studies, including the strategic preparations for the next round of SEA-PLM assessment, SEA-PLM 2029.

Looking ahead, the SEA-PLM team outlined their strategic vision to maximize the program’s impact. Their focus includes translating assessment findings into actionable policy recommendations, expanding technical capacity-building efforts, and ensuring long-term sustainability through governance enhancements and resource mobilization.

The 13th ASEAN-SEAMEO Secretariats Coordination Meeting reaffirmed both organizations' commitment to strengthening education collaboration and addressing regional challenges. By advancing foundational learning, research excellence, and early childhood education, ASEAN and SEAMEO continue to drive meaningful progress toward a more inclusive and equitable education landscape in Southeast Asia.

"Learning means knowledge, and getting a job", said 10-year-old Phoudthalith, sitting under the shade of a tree outside her small classroom in Vientiane.

For Phoudthalith, and many of her friends, the priority is getting good grades in Lao language and mathematics, learning by rote from the blackboard. When asked about what the most fun part of learning is, Phoudthalith looks uncertain about how to answer.

Across Southeast Asia, teachers, schools and governments are trying to move from a knowledge-based curriculum to one based on competency, with a focus on critical thinking and developing skills that can be transferred outside the classroom. Lao PDR is in the process of transforming its primary school curriculum, improving teacher training and placing resources where they can best help student learning outcomes.

But to do this, Governments need to know where they are at right now and how to develop strategies to improve.

One of the key tools for this is the Southeast Asian Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM), being of UNICEF and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), in close collaboration with the Ministries of Education in the region. 

Put plainly, SEA-PLM is a regional learning assessment - the large-scale collection of data on student learning outcomes from schools across Southeast Asia, and the use of that information to inform curriculum development, teacher training and education policy.

Collecting this data in line with standardized practices in places like Lao PDR presents many challenges for the teams charged with coordination and communication.

From calling hundreds of schools to ask for up-to-date student lists to training and organising 216 test administrators to travel to schools across the country, the Lao technical team based at the Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES) in Vientiane have learnt many valuable lessons when it comes to planning and communication. These are skills that not only apply to SEA-PLM, but can be used in the design and management of national assessments.

Just as a microscope is adjusted to the correct lens to see specific cells, so does the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) provide the tools and criteria to meet a more dynamic approach to learning. Students complete assessment booklets in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics and global citizenship, engaging in both knowledge and competency based questions.

But SEA-PLM goes deeper than this.

Test administrators also have parents, teachers and principals complete questionnaires to gain an understanding on the context in which children learn. What was the level of pre-reading before entering school? Is gender an issue? Are students being supported to do their homework and do they have access to learning material at home? SEA-PLM enables deeper level analysis of why students are and aren't learning well.

The Lao technical team have been working in collaboration with the UNICEF Lao Country Office and the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) to prepare for the collection of data for many months now. From the 30^th April until 8^th May Lao PDR implemented data collection for SEA-PLM.

Now, the Lao technical team members will begin marking and coding the written answers in the booklets into a code that can be compared against tests in other countries and other languages. The results from all six Southeast Asian nations involved will be compiled in one unique and complex regional database to allow reliable analysis on the level of student outcomes and equity at the regional, national and sub-national level.

The learning assessment will give an empirical snapshot of how countries, schools, pupils are faring in specific areas according to their environment for instance, type of difficulties in reading comprehension between socio-economic backgrounds or how girls and boys are learning. 

For each country, the data will provide the opportunity to make informed decisions on how to shape policy and where to place resources.

For the individuals involved in the data collection and analysis, there will be specific skills learned that can translate to other areas of research and hopefully, a broadening of their understanding about what education could and should look like in cities and villages across Lao PDR.

And for children like Phoudthalith, and perhaps her children in the future, the idea of learning might be less about remembering what gets written on the blackboard, but how to learn and where that might take them.