Bangkok, 25 November 2021: On 30 November 2021, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) marks its 56th anniversary. As the COVID-19 pandemic is still continuing and to reach global audiences, the SEAMEO Secretariat commemorated this anniversary entirely online in collaboration with the SEAMEO Regional Centres to hold a symposium under the theme “SEAMEO Centres: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. The online celebration also featured the launch of two SEAMEO initiatives – SEAMEO CARES Toolkit on Remote Teaching and Learning and SEAMEO Youth ConneX.

The SEAMEO Secretariat Director, Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua Valenzuela, opened the online ceremony with her welcome remarks, where she highlighted that “the 56th Anniversary of this year will purposefully start the new decade of SEAMEO Strategic Plan 2021 to 2030 which was recently approved by the 11 Southeast Asian Ministers of Education at the 51st SEAMEO Council Conference in June 2021.”

Welcome message from
Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua Valenzuela
Director of SEAMEO Secretariat

The SEAMEO Symposium on “SEAMEO Centres: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow” invited 15 SEAMEO Regional Centres’ Directors to present their outstanding achievements/flagship programmes and innovative future plans that could reshape the region in fields of education, science, and culture in the post-COVID world.

“The SEAMEO CARES Toolkit on Remote Teaching and Learning” was launched by Director of SEAMEO Secretariat with Mr Francis Jim Tuscano, GS EdTech Coordinator-Xavier School San Juan, and 2017 Global Teacher Prize Finalist from the Philippines. The toolkit is under the SEAMEO COVID-19 Accessible and Responsive Education Support (CARES) Project, aiming to guide and help teachers to make remote learning engaging and interactive, thus ensuring learning continuity even during the pandemic.

Further, SEAMEO anniversary’s celebration also included the announcement of a new initiative, “SEAMEO Youth ConneX”, a new SEAMEO technological platforms for younger generation particularly ClubHouse and TikTok, aiming to connect them with the upcoming SEAMEO activities/projects/events which they can join. The first SEAMEO Clubhouse topic was “AI Space Challenge” happened on Sunday 14 November 2021.

	...
Launch of SEAMEO CARES Project’s Toolkit Mr Francis Jim Tuscano GS EdTech Coordinator-Xavier School San Juan, and 2017 Global Teacher Prize Finalist from the Philippines		Launch of SEAMEO Youth ConneX Dr Kritsachai Somsaman Deputy Director for Administration and Communication, SEAMEO Secretariat

The celebration was opened to general public on Thursday 25 November 2021 at 09.30-11.30 hrs (GMT+7/Bangkok Time) streaming via SEAMEO Secretariat YouTube channel at https://link.seameo.org/webinar/20211125 with over 5,700 participants during live.

SEAMEO 56th Anniversary Video
https://www.youtube.com/SEAMEOsecretariat

Programmes of the SEAMEO 56th Anniversary Celebration
https://www.seameo.org/Main_programme/307