Year | 2000 | | 2001 | | 2002 | | 2003 | | 2004 | | 2005 | | 2006 | | 2007 |
48th
GBM: Board Members Express Support for Center's
Peace Initiatives
Members of the Governing Board of SEAMEO INNOTECH
expressed their full support to the Center's efforts
in promoting peace and respect for cultural diversity
through education during the 48th Meeting held in
Ho Chi Minh City last September 2005.
Proceeding from the thrust initiated during the
40th SEAMEO Council Conference earlier in the year,
Center Director Dr. Erlinda C. Pefianco presented
to the Board three initiatives being pursued by the
Center towards the promotion of education for peace.
They are the Education and Life Skills Alliance (ELSA);
the Materials Development Project in Support of the
Curriculum for the Private Madaris and the Enriched
Curriculum for Public Schools for Muslims; and the
Road Map for Upgrading Muslim Basic Education in
the Philippines.
Project ELSA would conduct equivalency matrix policy
research to improve educational policies in Alternative
Learning Systems and Madrasah education. In three
years, the project is expected to benefit 120 schools
with 100,000 -plus grades 5 and 6 pupils, train their
school heads and teachers, produce learning materials
in English, Math and Science; train instructional
managers of alternative learning systems; and develop
an equivalency matrix of standards for school accreditation.
The Materials Development Project in Support of the
Standard Curriculum for Public and Private Madaris
seeks to refine the description, scope and sequence
of topics for Islamic Studies, Arabic and Values
Education at the elementary level and develop textbooks,
teaching guides and pupils' worksheets in these learning
areas. The Road Map for Upgrading Muslim Basic Education
strives for a comprehensive educational development
in Muslim Mindanao and in communities where there
are migrant Muslim populations.
The Center director also reported that SEAMEO INNOTECH
is undertaking collaborative activities that include
benchmarking missions that hope to draw lessons from
the experiences of countries like Brunei, Indonesia,
and Malaysia in raising the quality of education
for Muslim learners. Currently a group of Muslim
teachers is in Brunei engaged in continuing education
work. The Center intends to organize other Muslim
groups and, in collaboration with the ministries
of education either in Indonesia or Malaysia, bring
these groups to the said countries to learn from
their experiences.
The Board supported the director's suggestion to
include a strand on peace education and cultural
diversity in the Competency Framework for Southeast
Asian School Heads developed by SEAMEO INNOTECH.
The meeting was highlighted by the national launch
in Vietnam of Project LEARNTECH eXCELS, undertaken
jointly with SEAMEO RETRAC as the Center's national
partner institution. A ceremonial cutting of the
ribbon was led by the SEAMEO INNOTECH Center director
and SEAMEO RETRAC deputy director. Project materials
that included learner modules, learner guidebooks
and tutor's guides were distributed to the members
of the Governing Board who witnessed the course in
action through a lesson demonstration. The initial
materials focus on the instructional leadership competency,
as prioritized by the Board members in the previous
meeting. They encouraged the Center to fast-track
the development of content for the other areas of
the Competency Framework for Southeast Asian School
Heads.
On another current thrust,
Dr. Pefianco informed the Board that the Center
is exploring how it can help establish a regional
database of successful models of alternative learning
systems and delivery modes to address the needs
of pupils who are forced to drop out and stay out
school. Statistics show that if the formal education
is not able to improve its performance in the next
five years, there will be 22.5 million more illiterate
or neo-literate Filipinos. The Philippines if finding
it difficult to "attain
the last mile" as participation rates have not been
improving even if budget appropriations and infrastructure
growth have improved.
The director asserted that the Philippine Department
of Education needs to implement a complete system
of education that serves all children regardless
of economic condition and social situation in life.
This could be made possible through alternative learning
systems (ALS) and alternative delivery modes (ADM).
ALS is anon-school-based system encompassing both
the nonformal and informal sources of knowledge and
skills such as the home, church and media. An example
would be DepEd's Nonformal Education Accreditation
and Equivalency program. ADM is a nontraditional,
non-conventional system of instruction which can
be used in both the formal or non-formal settings.
Examples are SEAMEO INNOTECH's eIMPACT (Instructional
Management by Parents, Community and Teachers) and
EASE (Easy and Affordable Secondary Education).
"While the Center will continue developing solutions
to anticipated problems in the formal school system,
it will move ahead and push for the recognition of
ALS as a parallel or comparable option. We will do
more research and training to expand the range of
available ADM for the formal school system as well
as for ALS," said Dr. Pefianco.
The Board members agreed that more resources and
attention should go into the nonformal and informal
systems of learning. They said this would be a very
challenging thrust for the Center and that it would
be good to collaborate with other stakeholders to
further discuss on this.
Caution was aired however that
it is important to make sure formal learners are
not "demotivated" when
alternative learning and delivery systems are made
available. An act of balance among all the systems
must be achieved. They said it is also important
to assure recognition of informal and nonformal systems
of learning in the workplace, as well as community
involvement in furthering the education of children
who are not able to attend formal school.
The Board agreed to hold the next Governing Board
Meeting in Malaysia on 25-27 September 2006.
TOP
