For over two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in all areas of social life and changed the educational landscape globally.  We have witnessed in all countries that teachers and schools have gone through a process of transformation from the conservative modes of teaching to the innovative ways by integrating with information technology and ensuring that the students remain learning.

Realising that the region has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, the SEAMEO Secretariat and SEAMEO Regional Centres have adapted internal mechanisms to ensure that works and programmes are not interrupted due to the pandemic lockdowns.

To ensure that systems and procedures are in place and to ensure uninterrupted service for teachers and learners in the region, the SEAMEO Secretariat and SEAMEO Regional Centres have transformed our face to face training, seminars and conferences to be virtual. 

Zoom, WebEx, YouTube, Facebook live are used as the online platforms to deliver the teacher training and professional development programmes.

13 SEAMEO Webinar Series in Response to COVID Pandemic during April-September 2020 

During the beginning period of the COVID-19 pandemic, while all countries announced the lock-down, the SEAMEO Secretariat organised thirteen SEAMEO Webinar Series in Response to COVID-19 pandemic and streamed live via YouTube during April to September 2020.  These webinar series aimed to provide the platform for addressing policy needs and highlighted emerging challenges and solutions for policy makers, teachers and learners during the lockdown in 2020.  The content covered areas such as Mental Health Supports, Developing Flexibility and Technologies, Learning Management System and Open Education Resources, Resilience and Connectivity Learning, School Re-Opening, and other relevant topics. 

The SEAMEO Secretariat also introduced over ten SEAMEO Lecture Series for teachers and partners to share best practices, and practical teaching solutions that have enabled teachers to move from conventional face-to-face to alternative modes of delivery and share innovative teaching and learning strategies for students, particularly for students in remote areas and disadvantaged learners.  

In addition, the SEAMEO Secretariat introduced the SEAMEO-Partner Series by collaborating with global education leaders, partners and private enterprises such as Education New Zealand, Australian Government, QS Quacquarelli Symonds (UK),  University of Tsukuba (Japan) and other partners to organise SEAMEO Masterclasses,  SEAMEO-Partner Webinar Series,  and Teacher Training Programmes to share the advanced knowledge and up-to-date solutions that can contribute to the institutional development, teacher capacity development and future skills for students.

Within 3 years of COVID pandemic during April 2020-December 2022, SEAMEO Secretariat has hosted approximately 94 webinars, lecture series and online forums for teacher professional development with over 148,000 pre-registrants.  As of December 2022, the SEAMEO Secretariat’s webinars and online programmes have reached over 4.5 million views in YouTube.  

April 2020-December 2022

It is interesting to see from the YouTube analytics that the SEAMEO webinars have reached to over 100 countries. The data showed that the most participating countries in SEAMEO webinars in YouTube are Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

In 2023, the SEAMEO Secretariat will continue the collaboration with SEAMEO Member Countries, Associate Member Countries, Affiliate Members, development partners and industry sectors to maintains its aspirations for the development of Human Resources in Southeast Asian countries and beyond in various channels for the teacher professional development programmes.     

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