ASEAN education ministers meet in Cebu to push work on poverty reduction, food security

MANILA, Philippines - Two annual assemblies will draw the education ministers of the 11 Southeast Asian countries to the bustling city of Lapu-Lapu: the 45th meeting of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Council (SEAMEC) and the 5th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Education Ministers (ASED) meeting.

The conferences will be held from Jan. 26 to 29 at Shangri-La’s Resort and Spa.

The back-to-back activities has been organized by the Department of Education (DepEd) in collaboration with the Thailand-based Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat (SEAMES); government agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Interior and Local Government (DILG), Transportation and Communications (DOTC), and Tourism (DOT); Cebu provincial and Lapu-Lapu City governments; Bureau of Customs; and Philippine National Police.

The current education ministers will be perpetuating the vision and mission that their predecessors had conceived and pursued.

The first center of excellence, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), was established in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus in 1966.

SEARCA, currently headed by Director Gil Saguiguit Jr., is mandated to work on poverty reduction and food security in Southeast Asia through its core mission areas of graduate scholarship, short-term training, research and development (R&D), and knowledge exchange.

No less than DepEd Secretary Lapus has lauded the center’s scholarship program for its considerable contribution to Southeast Asia’s development, noting that many SEARCA graduates have assumed leadership roles in various fields in their respective countries.

Lapus also cited the 13,500 Southeast Asians who have completed SEARCA’s specialist training courses in agriculture and rural development, food security, poverty reduction, economics, and other fields.

Statistics provided The STAR by the Bangkok-based SEAMES showed that during the 1967-2005 period, 72,922 nationals of SEAMEO countries benefited from the academic, training, and other programs implemented by the SEAMEO COEs.

Of the program beneficiaries, 3,304 earned their PhD and MS degrees.

The 69,618 others completed non-degree training courses in various fields.