Courtesy Visit of Hon. Sara Z. Duterte, Vice President and Secretary of the Department of Education,
the Republic of the Philippines, and President of SEAMEO Council to SEAMEO TED
21 March 2024
(Hon. Sara Z. Duterte and Dr. Songheang Ai)
Hon. Sara Z. Duterte, Vice President and Secretary of the Department of Education, the Republic of the Philippines, and President of SEAMEO Council paid her official visit to Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Technical Education Development (SEAMEO TED) on 21 March 2024 to check the progress and achievements of the center since the establishment in 2017 and to provide strategic direction for SEAMEO TED to move forward in the right direction. In his welcome remarks, Dr. Songheang Ai, center director raised the structure and achievements of the center. For example, SEAMEO TED works for technical and vocational high schools in the SEAMEO country members in terms of capacity-building programs, research and development, and public relations and partnership. SEAMEO TED has four divisions consisting of public relations and partnership division, technical education and training division, research and development division, and administration, planning, and finance division. For the fiscal year 2022-2023, four offline training courses have been done for 156 technical teachers. Seven online training courses participated by 939 SEA participants have been done. TED has organized two virtual teacher exchange programs participated by 36 teachers, 391 students, and 37 classes from 11 vocational high schools in Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
(Watching the Video Clip of SEAMEO TED Achievements)
He also stressed that TED brought 31 participants from Cambodia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Malaysia to visit Beijing, China for the TVET Leadership Benchmarking Program in August 2023. TED has formulated SEA Vocational-Technical High School Network participated as the membership from 81 vocational and technical high schools from all 11 SEAMEO country members. Among them, 17 vocational high schools are from the Philippines. For 2024, TED organized SEA-China Partnership Workshop in Phnom Penh in January, participated by 105 participants from China and seven SEAMEO country members.
(Hon. Sara Z. Duterte Delivering Impressive Remarks)
Hon. Sara Z. Guterte appreciated the subsequent good cooperation between Cambodia and the Philippines on education sector. Hon. Sara also stressed the important role of SEAMEO TED in the region to enhance technical education and skill development for youth. One of the key highlights that she raised was the Awareness-Raising Workshop on IR 4.0 Skills to Meet the Labor Market Needs being held in 2022 linking with ASEAN TVET Council Work Plan 2021-2030 to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). SEAMEO TED might be a bridge and foundation of cooperation between Cambodia and the Philippines on education sector. Finally, she was thankful to SEAMEO TED for engaging more Pilipino participants to join the regional programs such as training courses, webinars, study visits, conferences, exchange programs, and workshops.
(Dr. Songheang Ai and His Colleagues Listening to her Impressive Remarks)
(Hon. Sara Z. Duterte Delivering Her Impressive Remarks)
l