CRICED holds a special session at the Tsukuba Conference withSEAMEO and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT) to commemorate 50th Year of ASEAN-JapanFriendship and Cooperation
Oct 13, 2023

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 50thanniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation. Under the theme "Innovative
Educational Activities for the Sustainable Development of the Future Generation: Sharing theBest 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. Theparticipants shared best practices of innovative initiatives in primary and secondary education inSoutheast Asian countries and Japan and discussed how to meet the challenges of the newgeneration as global citizens. The session was held in a hybrid mode, with more than 1,000 preregistered 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, andintroduced 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 andTaiwan of University of Tsukuba, the participants deepened their contemplation on how
Southeast Asian countries and Japan are addressing the challenges of the new generation inprimary 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, Tawaufrom 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 fromUniversity 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 ofinnovative 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 togather together and share their practices in this way. This session marked as the first step towards
further collaboration in the future.
＜Related Links＞
Session movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXQclB3DGk8&t=553s
Tsukuba Conference website E02 session websiteGroup photoFrom left: guest speakers Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, Director of SEAMEO; Ms TABUCHI
Miyuki Helga, Director, Office for International Strategy Planning, Minister's Secretariat, MEXT;Dr IKEDA Jun, Vice President for Global Affairs, University of Tsukuba; moderator Dr NOMURA
Nakao, Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Bureau of Global Initiatives, Universityof Tsukuba; general MC Ms Nao ISHIHARA, Bureau of Global Initiatives, University of Tsukuba

Presentation by each school: Clockwise from top left: South Hill School, SM St Patrick, Tawau,University of Tsukuba Senior High School at Sakado, Kranji Secondary School, La Filipina
National High School