BANGKOK, 1 May 2015 – Thailand is to host the 48th Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Council Conference (SEAMEC) at the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel in Pattaya, Chonburi during 6-9 May 2015.
SEAMEC is held biennially by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization or SEAMEO. With a total of 19 member countries and 3 member institutions, the conference is expected to be participated by 200 delegates from the 10 ASEAN nations, Timor-Leste, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the UK.
The three affiliate member institutions — the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), the University of Tsukuba and the British Council — will also send in their delegates.
SEAMEO has established 21 specialist institutions that undertake training and research programs in various fields of education, science, and culture, three in Malaysia, six in Indonesia, three in Philippines, one in Brunei, one in Singapore, one in Myanmar, three in Thailand and two in Vietnam.
On 6 May at noon, ministers of education and permanent-secretaries from all member states will join a plenary meeting. Prof. Dr. Pham Vu Luan, Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training is scheduled to hand over his chairmanship to his Thai counterpart, who will sit in the position for two years.
On 7 May in the mooring, there will be an opening ceremony, to be followed in the afternoon by a policy meeting on “Digital Learning for Creating Future Global Citizens” in which Dr.Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, Thai Deputy Minister of Education will give a speech.
During the 4-day conference, there will be many bilateral meetings between education ministers. Thailand will meet with Malaysia and Indonesia on 6 May and Singapore and Lao PDR on 7 May.
On the last day of the conference, a ministerial round-table meeting will be held on the issue of “SEAMEO in the Next Decade” in order to outline plan for educational development for the next ten years.
