UNESCO-Nagoya University Secondary Education Regional Policy Seminar

(Nagoya, Japan; 10-12 November 2008)

 

A regional policy seminar on secondary education was organized jointly by UNESCO Bangkok and the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University.

Thirty participants from nine countries in the region (Bangladesh, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam) attended the seminar. These included senior ministry officials working in secondary education, academics engaged in related research and international experts.

The seminar was opened jointly by Nagoya University and UNESCO Bangkok, followed by a key note presentation by Prof. Stephen P. Heyneman of Vanderbilt University.

The first half of the seminar was devoted to discussions on challenges and priorities of countries in the region, focusing on four key areas: 1) access and equality; 2) quality; 3) finance; and; 4) different pathways. For each topic, a resource person from the Nagoya University, UNESCO, or the International Institute for Educational Planning gave an overview of trends and issues from a regional perspective, in order to ensure common understanding of the topic and to create a scene for discussions.

Presentations by country participants shared concrete country experiences related to the topic. In addition to the plenary sessions, participants further examined each topic in groups, facilitated by the resource persons. Discussions during the second half of the seminar focused on findings from UNESCO’s five country case studies on secondary teachers and the regional analysis.

Three major issues related to secondary teachers were addressed: 1) quantitative aspects of demand and supply of secondary teachers; 2) concerns about secondary teacher quality; and 3) the financing of secondary teachers. The last session revisited the major challenges and the different policy responses that emerged from the discussions throughout the seminar. Similarities and differences across countries in terms of issues and responses were summarized into a matrix. 

The meeting proved to be highly valuable in generating rich and useful discussions and the sharing of experiences across different sub-regions and across countries of different levels of development. The outcomes of these discussions will be disseminated through a brief publication that is currently under preparation.

For more information on UNESCO’s regional project on secondary education, visit the SEPRA website.