SEAMEO Secretariat, SEAMEO RECSAM and UNICEF EAPRO hold Regional Consultative Meetings on SEAMEO Basic Education Standards and Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics

The purpose of the meetings was to take stock of global, regional and national developments in curriculum and educational standards with a view to develop the SEA-PLM and the SEA-BES.

These two back-to-back meetings gathered 54 experts and specialists on curriculum and assessment from the Ministries of Education of SEAMEO Member Countries, SEAMEO Centres, and international institutes and organizations such as the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) of Australia; Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) of South Korea; UNESCO Bangkok; and the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris, France; Aga Khan University in Pakistan; and Universiti Brunei Darussalam in Brunei Darussalam.

Based on shared Southeast Asian values and culture, the two projects have the common goal of piloting a common curriculum and educational standards in SEAMEO Member Countries. Indeed, while the SEA BES project aims at developing common SEAMEO basic education curriculum standards, the SEA PLM project is a response to the need for culturally relevant assessment tools to measure learning outcomes for primary grades.

The SEA BES project will attempt to align with the curriculum of more advanced countries that were proven effective based on results of international assessments. The project will focus on Science, Mathematics, English, and Entrepreneurship in the secondary level and will embed ASEAN values and culture as well as the 21st century skills. The project is being coordinated by the SEAMEO Secretariat and SEAMEO RECSAM.

The SEA PLM project features a system level monitoring of learner ™s achievements, particularly in three domains, namely, numeracy, literacy and global citizenship. Being coordinated by the SEAMEO Secretariat and UNICEF EAPRO, the SEA PLM was launched through a regional meeting on 20 October 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The SEA BES and the SEA PLM support directly the goal of improving quality of education in Southeast Asia and both aim at strengthening technical collaboration on learning assessment and standards across education systems in ASEAN and SEAMEO.

Experts from SEAMEO Member Countries, SEAMEO Centres, international organizations, and higher educations institutions share and discuss knowledge and experiences on basic education standards and assessments.

Participants to the back-to-back activities led by Dr Witaya Jeradechakul, Director of SEAMEO Secretariat, Dr Hj Mohd Johan Zakaria, Centre Director of SEAMEO RECSAM,
and Mr Jim Ackers, Regional Education Adviser of UNICEF-East Asia Pacific Regional Office pose in a group photo.