20 October 2022

The 12th ASED Meeting, 6th ASEAN+3 EMM, 6th EAS EMM and related Senior Officials Meetings on Education at Hanoi, Viet Nam

By
Patitin Lertnaikiat
AUN Programme Officer;

The 17th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED) was conducted on 11 October 2022 and followed by further meetings regarding ASEAN education throughout 4 days. This year, the location of the meetings were at Hanoi, Viet Nam with the theme being, “Joint efforts to reimagine learning and building resilience of education systems in ASEAN and beyond in the new context”. The events were organized by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam with the Executive Director, Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, attending all meetings.

The meetings conducted were:

  1. 17th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED)
    Tuesday, 11 October 2022
  2. 12th ASEAN Plus Three Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED+3)
    Wednesday, 12 October 2022
  3. 7th East Asia Summit (EAS) (SOM-ED)
    Wednesday, 12 October 2022
  4. 12th ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting (ASED)
    Thursday, 13 October 2022
  5. 6th ASEAN Plus Three Education Ministers Meeting (APT EMM)
    Friday, 14 October 2022
  6. 6th EAS Education Ministers Meeting (EAS EMM)
    Friday, 14 October 2022

In the 4 days transpired of the meeting, the key points discussed were the following:

  • Resilient and Inclusive Education System in ASEAN
  • Plans to mitigate Learning Loss due to COVID-19
  • Digital Transformation of Education in ASEAN 
  • Implementation on the ASEAN Workplan on Education (AWPE) 2021-2025, the ASEAN Plus Three Plan of Action (APT PoA) on Education 2018-2025, and Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, modern education saw a shakedown in its stability as lockdowns occurred and disrupted academic institutions from being able to continue standard on site teaching and learning. This called for a rapid transition towards online learning and teaching systems in order to comply with safety precautions during the pandemic. Due to such sudden changes around the world, it is necessary to ensure the way forward for education systems to be resilient in case any future disruptions ever happen again. The shift towards online education also requires the need of a system that is inclusive and will provide the best possible accessibility to education.

The pandemic not only disrupted the current system of education, but it also imposed limitations that resulted in ‘Learning Losses’. Lockdown and health safety concerns greatly restricted the mobility of people around the world, which negatively affected many education programmes and learning opportunities that required physical presence of students. The SOM-ED meeting was an opportunity to develop plans to mitigate Learning Loss due to COVID-19 in the ASEAN region. Many topics were discussed in order to tackle the issue of Learning Loss, such as ways to support the physical and mental health of students and create new learning programmes to make up for lost ones due to the pandemic.

The Digital Transformation of Education in ASEAN goes in conjunction with creating a resilient and inclusive education system in ASEAN and plans to mitigate Learning Loss. The adaptation caused by the limitations of physical presence due to the pandemic was the shift towards an online system in ASEAN education. Therefore, it is important to develop an educational framework that fully utilizes the functionality of the latest digital technology to maximize the potential of online education.

The current workplans and roadmaps that are in motion to tackle these key issues of the current post-pandemic education system in ASEAN are the following:

  • Implementation on the ASEAN Workplan on Education (AWPE) 2021-2025 
  • The ASEAN Plus Three Plan of Action (APT PoA) on Education 2018-2025 
  • Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025

The development of a robust post-pandemic education system will take time. However, it will greatly bolster the ASEAN education system's ability to be resilient to any disruptions that may occur in the future.