The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) is a regional intergovernmental organization established in 1965 among governments of Southeast Asian countries to promote regional cooperation in education, science and culture in the region.
As an organization that has continued to nurture human capacities and explored the peoples’ fullest potential, the SEAMEO maintains its work and aspirations for development with peoples of the region to make lives better in quality and equity in education, preventive health education, culture and tradition, information and communication technology, languages, poverty alleviation and agriculture and natural resources.
The organisation's highest policy-making body is the SEAMEO Council, which comprises the 11 Southeast Asian education ministers. The SEAMEO Secretariat is located in Bangkok, Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam |
Cambodia |
Indonesia |
Lao PDR |
Malaysia |
Republic of the Union of Myanmar |
Philippines |
Singapore |
Thailand |
Timor-Leste |
Socialist Republic of Vietnam |
The Core Values of SEAMEO are:
SEAMEO prides itself in its technical and scientific expertise in various fields of specialisation, its strength in governance and management, partnership, networking and collaborative skills. It sets the pace in research, creativity and innovative programmes in education, science and culture in the region.
SEAMEO strives for excellence in the following Core Competencies:
Technical and scientific expertise in areas of specialisation
Governance and management skills
Collaborative partnership and networking skills
Research, creativity and innovative skills
Strategic Goals
To develop regional centres of excellence
To provide relevant and responsive programmes that address national and regional issues in SEAMEO’s areas of specialization
To strengthen the organisational capability to initiate and manage change and development to meet the challenges of globalisation
To ensure continued financial viability
To promote research and development (R&D) in education, science and culture and improve the dissemination mechanism
To enhance collaboration among Member Countries and relevant organisations
To be ASEAN’s strategic partner for the advancement of education, science and culture
To facilitate the development of harmonized education standards
To be a regional leader in the advancement of education, science and culture
Strengths
The Organization is non-profit and not politically oriented
SEAMEO has the largest grouping of country membership (11 Member Countries) in the region to deliver programmes in education
Its flexibility and resilience has enabled it to meet the challenges posed by the fast changing political and socio-economic development in the region
Its professional and technical programmes and activities that are often conducted on a regular scheduled basis are special and unique
The Organization has built a strong infrastructure of extensive physical and equipment resources. Almost every Centre has its own campus, training, research and information dissemination, dormitory facilities to enable it to carry out its functions successfully and with quality
Non-tangible resources of the Organization include its vast experiences, information, extensive network of contacts and linkages both nationally and internationally
Its activities are focused on the universally appealing theme of human resources development including sustainable development. This helps make SEAMEO attractive to countries wishing to make contributions to sustainable development at the grassroots level in Southeast Asia
The competence and experience of its personnel, complemented by the technical expertise provided by the SEAMEO Associate Member Countries and partner agencies, accounts for the quality and impact of its programmes and activities
The regional characteristic of the Centres’ professional staff also contributes to the richness in experience and competence of every Centre to handle projects that it undertakes. SEAMEO activities are not limited to Member Countries within Southeast Asia but are also open to participants, programmes and activities from outside the region. Interactions in these activities further enrich the experiences of the participants as well