Unesco-RP mustering support for bid to host lifelong learning center

MANILA, Philippines – The UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM) has gathered the top educators of Southeast Asia for a two-day conference in Manila which aims to round up support for the Philippines’ bid to be the site of a UNESCO “lifelong learning center” in the region.

Ambassador Preciosa S. Soliven, UNACOM secretary-general, said they were encouraged by the attendance and participation of many top educators from Southeast Asia at the two-day “Regional Workshop on Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development” which started yesterday at the Legend Villas Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

Soliven said that during the conference, UNACOM will stress the need to build a Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development in the region, and foster unity among the region’s nations in pushing UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to locate it in Manila.

“We want to get the support of our neighbors in the region for our bid to build the Lifelong Learning Center and to make the Philippines the site of the center in Southeast Asia,” Soliven said.

She said that at the start of the conference, there was already a general agreement on the importance of promoting “lifelong learning” among the people as a strategy towards sustainable development.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, who was the keynote speaker in yesterday’s opening ceremonies, said the UNESCO Executive Board, of which he is a member, has approved the conduct of a feasibility study for the establishment of the lifelong learning center for the SEA region in the Philippines.

Lapus said that UNESCO representatives who will undertake the study are expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

“It would give us considerable benefits since having the center here would give us easy access to world experts on lifelong learning,” Lapus said.

Among the top educators of Southeast Asia who were present yesterday were Ibrahim bin Haji Abdul Rahman, principal of the Jefri Bolkiah Technical College of Brunei Darussalam; Dr. Kang Dai Geun, president of UNESCO Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding; Le Thi Hoang Cuc, secretary of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO; and Zaidi Kassim, assistant director of Malaysia’s Ministry of Education-Education Technology Division.

Also in attendance were Dr. Ilseon Choi, director of the Planning Team of South Korea’s National Institute for Lifelong Education; Khammang Ounpheng, planning and administration chief of the Laos PDR’s Ministry of Education-Department of Non-formal Education; Apolinario Magno, director general of Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education; Dr. Cholatit Iamsumang, director of the Central Regional Non-formal Education Center of Thailand’s Ministry of Education-Office of Non-formal Education, and Meakh Sary of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.