UP CEDEV, SEAMEO INNOTECH hold forum on EDCOM 2

Originally posted on the University of the Philippines website.
Written by Percy Dahe, photos by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.

The University of the Philippines Center for Education and Development, under the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology held the discussion, Education for Development? Conversations on the EDCOM 2 Reports, June 5 at the Liceria Brillantes Soriano Hall, SEAMEO INNOTECH, UP Diliman. The forum is part of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s Regional Forum on Education and Learning series.

In her opening remarks, SEAMEO INNOTECH Centre Director Majah-Leah Ravago, emphasized that the demands of education were also development concerns. “The quality of education shapes social mobility, productivity, civic participation, and the capacity of societies to respond to change.”

UP President Angelo Jimenez, in his message, elaborated that the framing of organized forums and activities were not just a matter of responding to the learning crises of regional and global schools. “As far as the Philippines is concerned … the crisis of education is a crisis of national survival.”

The event featured a panel discussion moderated by UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Lorraine Pe Symaco. Panelists included UPD College of Education Professors Marie Therese Angeline Bustos and Dina Ocampo, UNICEF Philippines Chief of Education Akihiro Fushimi, and Southern Cross University School of Education Professor Emeritus Martin Hayden.

Representative of TINGOG Party-List and EDCOM 2 co-chair Jude Acidre, in closing, highlighted values that education for development must mean. It is education that “reaches real people in real places — strengthens families, empowers communities, supports livelihoods, and builds the nation from the ground up.”