A UNHEII UNESCO PRINCIPAL REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development (ACEID) Fourth UNESCO-ACEID International Conference SECONDARY EDUCATION AND YOUTH AT THE CROSSROADS Organized by ACEID (Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development) in collaboration with ONEC (Office of the National Education Commission of Thailand) UNICEF (East-Asian Principal Regional Office, Bangkok) SCF (U.K.) (Southeast, East Asia and Pacific Regional Off ice, Bangkok) Bangkok, Thailand, IO-13 November 1998 ACEID AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION November 12, 1998
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ASIA-PACIFIC CENTRE OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION FOR DEVELOPMENT (ACEID) FELLOW OF ACEID(FACEID) Presented to MR.GEOFFSPRING Secretary, Department of Education Victoria, Australia AWARD- and ASSOCIATECENTREAWARDS Presented THENATIONALCOUNCIL FOREDUCATIONALRESEARCH AND TRAINING to New Delhi, India and SEAMEOFWGIONALCENTREFOREDUCAI INSCIENCEANDMATHEMATICS Penang, Malaysia rion FOREXCELLENCEINEDUCATION and OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO ACEID 1998
PREVIOUS AWARDS FE~lulw OF ACEID (FACEID) AWARDS Mr. Anil Bordia. FACEID Formerly Secretary, Ministry of Education, India Professor Phillip Hughes, FACEID Foundation UNESCO Research Fellow. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Mr. Ma Peifeng, FACEID Deputy Director-General, Gansu Provincial Education Commission, China Professor Dr. Wichit Srisa-an. FACEID Rector, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand Dr. Minda C. Sutaria, FACEID Director, SEAMEO INNOTECH, Republic of the Philippines Professor Dr. Shigekazu Takemura, FACEID UNESCO Chair in Science Education University of Hiroshima, Japan ASSOCIATE CENTRE AWARDS Office of the National Education Commission (ONEC), Thailand Korean Educational Developmemt Institute (KEDI). Republic of Korea National Institute for Educational Research (NIER), Japan
Un ESCO s Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development has a system of awards in recognition of excellence in education and making an outstanding contribution to ACEID, by individual educators or Associated Centres of ACEID in the Asia-Pacific region. The award to the former is that of Fellow of ACEID (FACEID); the latter receive Associate Centre Awards. This year, ACEID recognizes and honours one educator, MI: Geoff Spring, Australia, and two Associated Centres, NCERT India, and SEAMEO, RECSAM, Malaysia. Profiles of each of these distinguished contributions to education are provided in this booklet. Rupert Maclean Chief of ACEID and Director a.i. UNESCO PROAP Bangkok I
FELLOW OF ACEID (FACEID) AWARD 1998 MR. GEOFF SPRING Secretary, Department of Education Victoria. Australia eoff Spring has a long history of service to education in Australia, to the Asia-Pacific region, and to UNESCO. These significant contributions include sponsorship of many innovative educational policies and projects, and leadership in regional and international educational policy conferences. Geoff Spring was appointed to his present position as Secretary of the Department of Education, after previously serving as Director of School Education in Victoria from 1992, and Secretary of the Department of Education in the Northern Territory from 1984. He is currently the longest serving Education Chief Executive in Australia. Prior to 1984, Geoff Spring held several senior positions in education in the Australian capital, Canberra, where he was Assistant Director of the National Curriculum Development Centre and National Executive Officer of the National Committee on Social Science Teaching. Before that he worked in the Research and Curriculum Branch of the Queensland Department of Education and in teaching and administrative positions in primary and secondary schools in Queensland. He is also the former Chair of the Australian Curriculum Corporation and the Open Learning Technology Corporation. Geoff Spring has taken a leading role in many areas of education reform in Australia, the most significant being the establishmernt of the School of the Future and the Schools of the Third Millennium programmes in Victoria. Geoff Spring is currently Chair of the National Goals Taskforce. of Language Australia, and of the Task Force on Vocational Education and Training in Schools. He is also a Director of the Australian Student Traineeship Foundation (ASTF).
Geoff Spring has also chaired a number of national committees and councils, including the Conference of Directors-General and the Standing Committee of the Australian Education Council. He has also been Chair of a number of National Working Parties in the areas of Curriculum, Aboriginal Education, Bilingual Education, National Communications Frameworks and Mobile Students. The contribution that Geoff Spring has made to UNESCO and UNESCO- ACEID has been truly outstanding. He was Chair of the Planning Committee for the UNESCO Conference on Education for the 2 1 St Century in the Asia-Pacific Region in Melbourne in 1998, and is Chair of the Australian Advisory Group for APEID (Asia and the Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development). He has been a Member of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO since 1989. He has also served as a Member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee for Education in the Asia/ Pacific Region, 1992-1993; as the Australian Delegate to the UNESCO/ MINEDAP Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 1993: as a Member of the Australian Delegation to the World Conference on Education for All, Jomtien, 1990: and was the Australian Delegate to the Review of Progress on Education for All, Jomtien, 1994. He also led the Australian Delegation to the UNESCO International Bureau of Education IBE Conference on Post-Secondary Education, Geneva, 1989; and served as Chair of the UNESCO Heads of Education in South-Pacific Conference, Darwin, 1990. Geoff Spring has been, and remains, a very strong supporter of UNESCO- ACEID, providing timely advice, a keynote address to ACEID s Second International Conference on Education in 1996, and sponsorship of several staff secondments to the ACEID office. These achievements and contributions which represent Excellence in Education and Outstanding Service to ACEID are rightly commemorated in the nomination of Geoff Spring for a Fellow of ACEID (FACEID) Award in 1998.
ASSOCIATE CENTRE AWARD NATIONAL FOR EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL RESEARCH AND TRAINING (NCERT) New Delhi, India he National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was established in I96 1 as an autonomous body to advise and assist the Government of India in formulating and implementing policies and programmes in the area of education, particularly school education. As a peak institution in the area of school education in India, NCERT played a crucial role in the reform and reconstruction of school education in India. It has provided significant support to the nation-wide effort to realize the goal of Universalization of Eleimentary Education and has devised and initiated special education intervention programmes for pre-school children, girls, children needing support through non-formal and alternative modes of schooling, and groups with special needs. such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities and those with physical and learning disabilities. NCERT has played a central role in the reorientation of school curriculum by formulating a National Curriculum Framework which integrates major issues of concern, including issues of population and development, potection of the environment and human rights. The curricular materials published by the NCERT are recognized as models for adoption and adaptation by school systems throughout India. NCERT has also made significant contributions to many other dimensions of educational reform, notably in the area of examination systems, measurement and evaluation, guidance and counselling, and identification and nurturing of talent among school children. NCERT is also the nodal agency in India for vocational education.
NCERT has been vet-v active in promoting the status of teachers through professional development in recent years. Besides innovative pre-service programme in its Regional Institutes of Education, recent in-service education programmes based on teleconferencing have shown great potential. and are an innovation worthy of sharing with the other countries in the region. NCERT was designated as an APEID Associated Centre in 1974, and has established itself as a major national focal point for ACEID S programme of activities. Sharing concerns and perceptions on educational innovations and development, similar to those of ACEID, NCERT has nurtured a relationship of mutual cooperation and partnership, and has advanced ACEID s objectives in a wide range of areas. These includes education of girls and disadvantaged population groups, educationproductivity linkage through vocational education, quality improvements at the first and second levels of schooling through reform of curricula and testbooks, application of educational technology, teacher capacity building, and educational research. NCERT has partnered ACEID in the creation of appropriate fora and in hosting technical consultations, seminars and workshops in all these areas. It has also organized visits and attachments of participants from countries in the Asia-Pacific region to promote the on-site study of its many educational innovations and show-case projects. NCERT has also carried out ACEID-supported innovative projects, specially in the critical area of girls education. NCERT has established a National Development Group (NDG) and disseminates news of educational innovations through the NDG Newsletter. Besides its participation in ACEID activities, NCERT has als0 helped to strengthen the resource support base of ACEID through extending expertise and consultancy in areas of expertise such as surveys and educational research, teacher education using teleconferencing, integrated education of the disabled, etc. Through the wide range and variety of its activities, NCERT has been able to generate enthusiasm and create a conducive climate for educational innovations in the country It has also contributed towards cooperative educational ventures among countries in the Asia-Pacific region, leading to greater mutuality of learning and sharing of experiences. The National Centre of Educational Research and Training in India is honoured for its Excellence in Education and Outstanding Service to ACEID through nomination for an Associate Centre Award in 1998.
ASSOCIATE CENTRE AWARD 1998 SOUTHEAST ASIAN MINISTERS OF EDUCATION ORGANIZATION REGIONAL CENTRE FOR EDUCATION IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS (SEAMEO-]RECSAM) Penang, Malaysia SEAMEO-RECSAM was established in 19.37 to serve as a centre of excellence and as a catalyst for the advancement of science, mathematics and technology education at the primary anti secondary school levels among its member countries of Brunei Darussalam. Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It has carried out this mission successfully through a regular programme of courses for SEAMEO educators. To date, more than 400 courses have been organized for well over 5,200 participants. Another special service is the hosting of customizcd courses. Customized programmes are a response to the special needs of SEAMEO member countries, other client countries, and local and foreign agencies or institutions that are not adequately addressed in the regular courses. These short-term courses may be held in-country or at RECSAM, and have been sponsored by The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in recent years. RECSAM continues to sustain its leading edge in the region, and beyond, for research in science, mathematics and technology education through The Journaf of Science and Mathematics Education in Southeast Asia
(international circulation) and The Classroom Teacher (local circulation). RECSAM has served as a consultant for teacher-education programmes for Malaysia and other SEAMEO member countries, and has collaborated with almost 30 national, regional and international centres/agencies throughout the SEAMEO Region, and in Australia, New Zealand, the Middle- East, Europe and Canada. RECSAM has initiated these linkages with governmental and non-governmental agencies in response to the broadening range of needs of its many clients. The Science Across Asia Pacific Project, with the collaboration of BP (Asia Pacific), is one of the off-shoots of these linkage programmes. The activities of RECSAM with UNESCO date back to 1969 and are mainly in association with its offices in Paris and Bangkok. These activities involve joint workshops in science, mathematics and computer education, and the training of participants from countries with projects sponsored by UNESCO. RBCSAM was designated as an Associate Centre of UNESCO-ACEID in 1977 and has hosted eleven joint seminars and workshops. Some of these activities have also been jointly sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. In addition, RECSAM has also provided specially arranged attachment programmes in science and mathematics education for participants sponsored by UNESCO. The duration of the programmes have ranged from two weeks to as long as five months. Almost 200 participants have benefited from these activities. Cooperation between SEAMEO-RECSAM and UNESCO, particularly with the international Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP) and the International Bureau of Education (IBE), has been cordial and the various collaborative efforts have brought many benefits, not only for RECSAM, but also for the participants and the participating countries. ACEID looks forward to greater and wider cooperation with RECSAM in the years to come, and the presentation of an Associate Centre Award in 1998 is recognition of RECSAM s Excellence in Education and Outstanding Service to ACEID.