How SEAMEO Regional Centre for Community
Education Development Responded to COVID-19?
Kiengkay Ounmany
SEAMEO Regional Centre for Community Education Development

Background• Established in July 2017, SEAMEO Regional Centre forCommunity Education Development (SEAMEO CED) is one of
the youngest SEAMEO Centres in Southeast Asia
• SEAMEO CED envisions itself as the “Centre of excellence ineducation services for sustainable community development
through social innovation, research and training”• SEAMEO CED has the following missions: capacity building,conducting research, and providing consultancy oncommunity education development

Covid-19 in Laos
• Lao PDR is the least COVID-19 affected country in the regionin terms of the number of confirmed cases• Total cases: 45• Recovered: 41• Death: 0• Active cases: 4• The pandemic, however, generates negative effects on theLao economy• The pandemic also affect daily activities of Lao people due totwo-month lockdownImpacts on education sector• Schooling in all types of educational institutions from preschool tohigher education has been interrupted• Impacts on education indicators: e.g. increasing drop out rate,increasing repetition rate, and decreasing student learning
outcome• Difficulty for newly graduates to find employment• Possible impacts on external assistance in Lao education sector• Negative effect on education sector budget (30% budget cut)
• Salary of teachers in private educational institutions weresuspended

MOES’s Responses• 17 March 2020: suspended teaching activities in preschool
institutions• 18 March 2020: suspended schooling in all types of educational
institutions across the country• Developing online learning resources using different platforms• Implementing disease prevention measures: wearing face masks,hand-washing, and social distancing• 18 May 2020: resumption of schooling for final year students (K5,K8 and K12), but vocational and higher education institution
remained closed• 02 June 2020: all types of schooling were allowed to resume, butkeeping social distancing measureChallenges preventing effective responses• Teachers and students were unfamiliar with the “newnormal”• Supporting infrastructure such as ICT was favorable only inurban areas• Limited capacity of parents to support their children to study
at home in remote areas

Impacts of Covid-19 on SEAMEO CED• The pandemic has had negative impacts on the implementation oftraining and research activities• SEAMEO CED takes the lead in the SEAMEO Border School Project• In November 2020, the centre planned to conduct a training
course on science and mathematics teaching for teachers fromschools in the Border School Project in collaboration with sister
centres in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand• SEAMEO CED is working with SEAMEO INNOTECH to conduct
participatory action research on school-community partnership• ICC Project with SEAMEO SEN Malaysia focusing on nutrition forspecial education students• The Border School Project activities for the year 2020 werepostponedHow did SEAMEO CED Responded?
• The 3rd International Seminar on Education for Rural
Community Development, a side line event of Governing
Board Meeting, was separately organized using innovative
approach• The seminar received very positive feedbacks from otherinternational and local participants• SEAMEO CED managed to secure funding from the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a research
project on community development in Laos

Lessons Learned• Supporting infrastructure should be well prepared to ensureeffective emergency responses• SEAMEO CED used pragmatic approach in responding to theCOVID-19• Although, it is one of the youngest centre, it managed to seize
a number of opportunities to continue its activities during thetime of global heath crisis

Thank you for your attention!