The SEAMEO Congress 2021 was co-organized by the Ministry of Education, Thailand, the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and SEAMEO Secretariat on April 28-29, 2021 under the theme of “Transforming Southeast Asian Education, Science and Culture in the Digital Age”. This congress was the platform to gather regional and global leaders and experts virtually to present, and discuss innovations, breakthroughs and best practices in Education, Science and Culture to achieve SDG4 2030 amidst and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Congress was the platform for networking and strategic partnership among education actors and stakeholders in Southeast Asia and beyond for enhancing the quality of learning and ensuring wider access and relevance of education in the region. 6 plenary sessions and 13 parallel sub-sessions, each with paper presentations and discussions were shared in the congress. SEAMEO TED has been given a great opportunity to be a quest speaker in the session of SEAMEO Centre Presentation on April 28, 2021 (15:00-16:00). Dr. Sonheang Ai, centre director of SEAMEO TED presented research findings of the centre on the topic: Assessing the Distance Learning Delivery Quality for Technical Education Students during the Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreak at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia.
In his presentation, he covered three key points: (1) introduction; (2) research methodology; and (3) discussion and conclusion. He highlighted some key strategies on human resource development, vocational and technical education and training at the upper secondary level, curriculum effectiveness, accessibility to the program, the role of teachers, and technological innovation during the pandemic.
Research employed paper-based questionnaires with three sections namely (1) demographic information; (2) satisfaction with 20 items; and (3) performance with the same 20 items, using a cross-sectional survey design. Likert type five-point scale was used. 13 general and technical high schools (GTHSs) with 796 participants covering eight trades in which 389 were female.
The importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to analyze data. The findings highlighted the limited quality of distance learning programs. The disparity between service receivers with different social-economic backgrounds such as teachers’ expertise, students’ affordability to access online programs, and school infrastructure.