By Mok Chew Yen
Teachers should make Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as strong support for innovation to keep children in school and also to nurture their learning activities.
That is what the Programmed Specialist, ICT in Education Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID) UNESCO Bangkok, Jonghwi Park said at the official opening of UNESCO-USM Regional Seminar on ICT integration in Teaching and Learning at Dewan Budaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) on 9 October.
“Quality education is not possible without competent and motivated teachers”, Jonghwi said to about 40 delegates representing 12 countries around the region who attended the seminar.
According to Jonghwi, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is striving to reach one of its goals of quality education for all by 2015.
“Based on the UNESCO Institute for Statistic, there are 57 million out-of-school children globally. We need about 1.5 million new primary school teachers and another 3.5 million secondary school teachers to accommodate this number of children. This shortage will be even bigger by 2030, if we don’t act fast today”, she said.
Also present at the seminar opening were Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Affairs and Development) Prof Adnan Hussein, Dean of School of Educational Studies, Prof Dato’ Dr Abdul Rashid Mohamed, Microsoft Director of Education Programs and Public Sector (Asia Pacific Region), Felicia Brown and Information Officer, ICT in APEID UNESCO Bangkok, Hartfried Schmid.
Adnan said UNESCO has been partnering with Malaysia in bringing information and communication technology (ICT) closer to schools and classrooms across the region.
“As a resource distribution centre for UNESCO, USM has been able to reach out to more teachers, sharing with them quality materials produced by UNESCO ICT in Education team.
Adnan also expressed his appreciation to UNESCO for all its efforts and support in bringing a change to the teaching and learning world.
The delegates who were mostly educators represented 12 countries were from Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Sri Langka, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
The UNESCO-USM Regional Seminar on ICT integration in Teaching and Learning is a three-day event that mainly encompasses workshop and talks for delegates. The seminar ended on 11 October.
