In her welcome address during the High-Level Roundtable Policy Dialogue, SEAMEO Secretariat Director Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim stressed that teachers are the primary agents of change in any education system and that meaningful reform must begin with how effectively they are supported in their professional growth.

The discussion that followed focused on advancing teacher excellence through ICT-mediated professional development in Southeast Asia, drawing on a regional study across nine countries that addresses challenges such as digital divides, compliance-driven training, and weak monitoring systems. Senior officials and institutional representatives engaged in a substantive roundtable to contextualise these recommendations within their respective national contexts.

Keynote addresses provided perspectives on designing TPD systems that support sustained and meaningful teacher learning at scale. The ministerial panel discussion and case study presentations demonstrated how education systems operate under constraints of scale, limited resources, and diverse contexts to advancing TPD@Scale in practice. The discussions reinforced that the challenges facing the Global South position Southeast Asia to not only to learn from global experience but to contribute meaningfully to it.

Participants also deliberated on the role of artificial intelligence in advancing Teacher Professional Development at scale, exploring how AI frameworks can be integrated into the ETI Regional Report and broader TPD systems across the region. The workshop's outputs included concrete recommendations and an action plan for AI integration within the ETI framework, reflecting the event's broader ambition to move from knowledge exchange to sustained, collective action for teachers and learners across the Global South.