CRICED holds a special session at the Tsukuba Conference with SEAMEO and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to commemorate 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation

At the Tsukuba Conference 2023, the Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development (CRICED) of University of Tsukuba, co-hosted by the South East Asia Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), held a special session to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation. Under the theme "Innovative Educational Activities for the Sustainable Development of the Future Generation: Sharing the Best Practices from the SEAMEO region and Japan," the session aimed to collaborate to further promote quality education for the next generation in Southeast Asia and Japan in the future. The participants shared best practices of innovative initiatives in primary and secondary education in Southeast Asian countries and Japan and discussed how to meet the challenges of the new generation as global citizens. The session was held in a hybrid mode, with more than 1,000 pre-registered participants from 42 countries all over the world.

In the opening session, Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, Director of SEAMEO, introduced University of Tsukuba as the most active organization among the affiliate members, while Ms TABUCHI Miyuki Helga, Director, Office for International Strategy Planning, Minister's Secretariat, MEXT, acknowledged CRICED for engaging in several projects under MEXT, and introduced SEAMEO-Japan ESD-Award. Finally Dr IKEDA Jun, Vice-President for Global Affairs of University of Tsukuba, expressed his gratitude for the collaboration between SEAMEO and MEXT. Moderated by Dr NOMURA Nakao, Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Taiwan of University of Tsukuba, the participants deepened their contemplation on how Southeast Asian countries and Japan are addressing the challenges of the new generation in primary and secondary education.

From the ASEAN countries, the SEAMEO-Japan ESD-Award first prize winners for 2019-2022 (2019: South Hill School, Inc. from the Philippines; 2020: SM St Patrick, Tawau from Malaysia; 2021: Singapore. Kranji Secondary School from the Philippines in 2019, SM St Patrick, Tawau from Malaysia in 2020, La Filipina National High School from the Philippines in 2022) gave presentations on their innovative educational activities. From Japan, students and teachers from University of Tsukuba Senior High School at Sakado, which has been a key school in Japan for the Ministry of Education's SGH project, gave practical reports on successful examples of innovative initiatives at their schools. This was the first time that the multi-year award winners of the SEAMEO-Japan ESD Award as well as Senior High School at Sakado had the opportunity to gather together and share their practices in this way. This session marked as the first step towards further collaboration in the future.