SEAMEO Secretariat has launched the SEAMEO Webinar Series to provide a platform for experts, education stakeholders and educators to discuss the response of member countries to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the webinar series featured internal experts who gave a snapshot of how the global education community has been addressing COVID-19 challenges thus far.

The SEAMEO Webinar Series started last 28 April 2020 with the theme Emotional and Psychosocial Health during COVID-19 Pandemic. This was immediately followed by another webinar on 29 April 2020 on Learning Continues:  Making Distance Learning, Open Education Resources and Online Resources Matter during COVID -19 Education Disruption. The webinar also focused on student mobility programmes as the topic on 07 May 2020 focused on Learning and Mobility in Lockdown: Snapshots of COVID-19 Effects on Student Mobility and Exchange. The last one on this series focused on resiliency last 14 May 2020 with the theme Enhancing Resilience and Connectivity in the Time of COVID-19: Snapshots of Good Practices.

All the webinars featured international experts from various international organizations and agencies, ministries of education of member countries and SEAMEO Centres. More than 100,000 learners mostly from Southeast Asia and all over the world benefitted from the sharing of experts and panelists and was able to interact with the keynote speakers and panelists by giving comments and asking questions on presentations. The SEAMEO Webinar Series is one of the multi-pronged efforts of SEAMEO Secretariat in helping the member countries cope with the new education normal as many countries grapple with COVID-19 challenges.

SEAMEO has recently been included in the Global Education Coalition for COVID-19 response, together with the United Nations agencies, international organizations, private sector, civil society representatives engaged in advancing COVID-19 education response from around the world at global, regional and countries level.