Bandar Seri Begawan - The first day of the Seameo Voctech 19th Governing Board Meeting Roundtable Discussion commenced yesterday, with delegates from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam taking part.
This is an important meeting for Seameo Voctech as it allows all members of the board the implementation of its mandate, to strengthen and improve vocational and technical education and training through human resource development in Southeast Asia.
Those present, including principals, deputy principals and other representatives were welcomed by the Acting Director of the Seameo Voctech Regional Centre Mohd Saiful Hj Omar, who said that the general theme on `Sustainability of VTET Policy and Practices` has been chosen to become the springboard of discussions.
"In relation to this topic, we have branched it out to subtopics on 21st century skills, private and public partnerships and best practices of respective countries," he said.
He also welcomed Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid, Director of the Regional Centre for Educational Planning, UNESCO, in Dubai, UAE who will be presenting his keynote speech later today.
According to Hj Abdul Rahim Dews, Acting Director of Information and Communications Department at the Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam`s Seameo Voctech, since its inception in 1990, has already achieved considerable accomplishments.
"Having gone through three five-year development plans, it has derived direction and guidance especially from its existing 311 Five-Year Development Plan. As a result, it has enhanced its vision of excellence in VTET of being a Seameo Centre, apart from reinforcing activities aligned to its areas of concern in training, research and information. In-addition, it has surpassed all its surveillance audits, and is now on a second term of the ISO 9001:2000 in South East Asia," he said.
"Our duty to share out views and suggestions to help in improving Seameo Voctech`s programmed operation will be most invaluable. At the end of this meeting, may we gain enlightenment to issues, or workable solutions and answers to challenges at hand. The beneficiaries our respective constituents VTET teachers, researches and other practitioners, will in turn become more empowered and productive in their assigned tasks in our institutions."
Some of the papers presented during yesterday`s meeting was: Seameo Voctech and the Netherlands Collaborative Project on South East Asian Research and Network (Seavern) Project: Updates and Future Programmed; Seameo World Bank Project on the Use of the Mother Tongue as Bridge Language of Instruction in South East Asian Countries: Policy, Strategies and Advocacy; and A Structured Framework for Regional Integration in Higher Education in South East Asia: The Road Towards a Common Space. By Zasika Musdi
Source: http://www.brudirect.com (October 14, 2008)