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46TH GOVERNING BOARD MEETING

SEAMEO INNOTECH’s gains and concerns during the fiscal year 2002-2003 were presented at its 46th Governing Board Meeting held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 29 September thru 01 October 2003.

Centre Director Dr. Erlinda C. Pefianco presented the Centre’s accomplishments in the areas of enhancing programme quality, strengthening management, sustaining financial viability, improving access to Centre programmes, and strengthening linkages. Highlights of her presentation included a review of the courses mounted, description of the participants who attended the courses, research projects undertaken, ICT activities, special programmes, as well as the Centre’s involvement in community-based activities.

Expressing appreciation of the Centre’s programmes, Board Chair Dr. Herwindo Haribowo suggested that ways must be instituted to make sure that learnings from the Centre’s courses and projects are shared with all member countries as well as other SEAMEO Centres. Interest was expressed in the results of “Case Studies on Successful School Management Project” and the participation as fee-paying delegates of nationals from countries not included in the framework of JICA’s Third Country Training Programme.

Board members discussed the possibility of conducting preparatory courses for scholars from member countries to meet the computer literacy and English proficiency requirements of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s programs. Dr. Pefianco said that the Centre is keen on setting up a help desk for continuing dialogue with Centre alumni to supplement the one-shot report of follow-up activities submitted by participants six months after their training. The SEAMES Director added that a continuing forum with alumni would constitute a lifelong learning process and would make for better impact of the courses as far as programme quality is concerned. On the other hand, the issue of scale could be addressed by flexible learning programmes, like Project COMPETE, which alleviates the limited capacity of SEAMEO Centres in terms of space, time and budget for face-to-face training programmes.

Dr. Pefianco informed the Board that the Centre is in the process of studying its organizational structure, redefining job descriptions and identifying competency levels required to enable the Centre to successfully undertake activities under the Learntech Initiative. She emphasized that the review of job items, job descriptions and staff roles and functions is a very sensitive exercise but one which has to be carried out in line with the ISO certification which the Centre hopes to get before the current fiscal year is over.

The Centre is set to finish the review of the organizational structure before the end of the current calendar year, after which the Centre will submit itself for ISO certification from January to June 2004. Efforts to help the Centre staff move towards the level of competencies needed to assume redefined tasks, as well as new roles and functions, called for in the Learntech Initiative will simultaneously be undertaken. By the time it presents its new set of job items in next year’s Governing Board Meeting, the Centre will be ready to fully implement the results of this “re-engineering” process.

SEAMEO INNOTECH Finance Manager Mrs. Amaryllis Salazar reported the Centre’s financial status, pointing out major reductions in personnel cost as well as in the Centre’s maintenance and operating expenses. Dr. Pefianco added that funds originally allotted for the first year of implementation of the Learntech Initiative have not been fully utilized as the Centre has just gone through the preparatory stage of its implementation. A higher percentage of expenditure is expected to occur as the Centre goes full swing with the Initiative. While the last Governing Board meeting approved appropriations from the Centre’s endowment fund to cover initial project costs, funds for additional projects in the future under the Initiative will have to be sourced from Centre operations or other income-generating projects. Dr. Pefianco pointed out, however, that during the fiscal year the Centre was still able to contribute to the endowment fund mainly due to cost management schemes that have greatly contributed to the Centre’s savings, a massive cost reduction programme supported by all staff, and staffing on project basis.

Dr. Pefianco informed the Board that in FY 2006-2007, the Centre will start its next five-year development programme. As early as now, it is making representations with the Philippine Government to increase the budget it has appropriated for the Centre. She expressed appreciation for the representations already made by the Secretary of the Philippine Department of Education to the Philippine Government for a rational review of budget allocations given to the SEAMEO Centres in the country which resulted in an increased budget for SEAMEO INNOTECH.

The other major agenda of the meeting was the progress of activities under the Learntech Initiative. The Director enumerated the steps taken during the fiscal year towards fulfilling the Centre’s vision of becoming Southeast Asia’s change leader in educational innovation and technology. Actions undertaken were in the following areas:

1. Programme reconfiguration which includes activities of the Action Research Project on the Development of a Flexible, Multi-Modal Learning System for School Managers and the development of a Southeast Asian Educational Resource and Information Network called the SEARI.net Project.

2. Institutional networking and linkages, including steps undertaken by the Centre toward ensuring active participation and capacity building of key educational institutions in the region, identified as critical factors in the achievement of the goals set under the Learntech Initiative.

3. Capacity building, referring to efforts of the Centre to continually build and enhance the capabilities of its staff to improve its human resource quality and efficiency.

The Centre Director also reported that the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) submitted a request for grant assistance from the Government of Japan through JICA for a project to train school heads in the use of appropriate technology tools for instructional supervision and for administration and management of schools. The project shall be implemented by SEAMEO-INNOTECH in partnership with the National Educators Academy of the Philippines. Included in the project proposal is a grant to build on Centre campus a learning technology infrastructure to support capacity building under Learntech.

The total grant being applied for will fund two basic components. The first part would support training of school heads on technology applications for improving teaching and learning and for managing schools more effectively and efficiently. The second part would be for the upgrade and expansion of the current technology-cum-pedagogy integration training facility and the technology application research and laboratory facility of the Centre. The National Educators’ Academy of the Philippines shall serve as the Centre’s partner in implementing the DepEd’s distance learning programme.

Dr. Pefianco added that the Centre would extend project services and benefits to the region especially in terms of sharing technology-enabled teaching and learning models developed and tested in the facility.

The Board member from the Philippines emphasized the need for the Centre to maintain strong relationships with its national partner institutions identified under Learntech. He said that while the Centre is looking into training teacher trainers in Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam, it might also be worthwhile to look to Brunei, Singapore and Thailand as sources of learnings for the other countries, thereby promoting synergy among the members countries.

SEAMES Director Dr. Arief supported this observation and added that the Centre should also keep in mind that different countries have different situations and that oftentimes there is more competition at the national level which the Centre must learn how to deal with. National institutions would oftentimes be offering the same services being offered by the Centre. Using nationals as resource presenters in training programmes conducted at the national level sometimes helps to diffuse such competition. The Centre must take extra care to make sure that it does not become mere extensions of these national institutions, acting as “brokers” for their programmes and services. He said that there has to be real collaboration between the Centre and its national partner institutions.

The Board then directed the Centre Director and her staff to actively pursue the following measures in support of the different components of the Learntech Initiative:

1. Identify and initiate discussions for possible partnerships with national institutions in the other member countries as sources of technology and information

2. Actively pursue secondment of nationals from the partner institutions in the newer SEAMEO member states and seek third party support for such arrangements

3. Continue the actions being taken in developing the staff capability enhancement programme in line with the directions being taken by the Centre

4. Instruct the officers and staff of the Centre to give the ongoing actions towards staff capability enhancement and ISO Certification

5. Continue its advocacy among identified resource partners and donors to generate further support for the project.

Finally, the Governing Board Chair confirmed the Board’s acceptance of the recommendation made by the Secretary of the Philippine Department of Education for Dr. Erlinda C. Pefianco’s third and final term as SEAMEO INNOTECH Director. The Secretary cited the importance of the extension of the Centre Director’s term so as to make sure that the leadership she has provided to the Centre, especially in implementing SEAMEO INNOTECH’s Learntech Initiative, will continue.

The next Governing Board Meeting was set to be held in the Philippines on 27 – 29 September 2004.

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