THE DEPARTMENT of Education facilitated the holding of the 2021 Association of Southeast Asian Nations high-level education meet that served as a platform for Asean member states and dialogue partners to discuss efforts and strengthen cooperation amid the challenges brought by the Covid19 pandemic.

“The purpose of [this] cooperation is not just to ensure that we will be able to fully recover from Covid19, [but] we want to [also] ensure that quality education will continue to be offered to our learners, pandemic or no pandemic. Cooperation must lead to an improved education sector,” Education Secretary and current Asean Education Ministers’ Meeting Chair Leonor Briones said.

The Philippines is the host of the 16th Asean Senior Officials Meeting on Education.

The 3-day meeting featured presentations and updates from Asean member states on their respective interventions, responses and programs geared towards addressing the challenges brought by the pandemic.

“I would like to commend the ministries of education across ASEAN member states for a job well done in undertaking the necessary steps in initiatives for the continuation of learning in their respective countries despite the constraints and challenges posed by the Covid19 pandemic,” Briones said.

Asean Deputy Secretary-General for Socio-Cultural Community Kung Phoak highlighted the relevance of the meet for the rebound of the education sector.

“I’m delighted to know this year that the Asean education sector has learned so much from the Covid19 experience and keep on moving forward. Aside from lessons learned from Covid19 responses, the 16th SOM-ED will be focusing on recovery efforts to discuss ways on how the Asean education sector can [be] built back better, stronger, [and] wider,” DSG Phoak said.

Among the member states and institutions who took part in the meetings were the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Asean Secretariat, SEAMEO Secretariat, and Asean University Network.

The partner countries represented were Canada, Hungary, India, and US.