HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam appreciates the support of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) centres that have annually provided short-term training courses for Vietnamese teachers.

The Indonesian centres for quality improvement of teachers and education personnel (QITEP) in maths, science and languages are particularly important, said Minister of Education and Training Phùng Xuân Nhạ on Monday at the meeting with President of SEAMEO Council Muhadjir Effendy in Hà Nội.

At the meeting, Nhạ and Muhadjir Effendy, who is also Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture, discussed bilateral co-operation in education and training.

Nhạ said he hoped the two sides would continue increasing exchanges between teachers and students and sharing experiences in order to develop education co-operation activities.

After hearing experiences of Việt Nam in adopting the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Muhadjir Effendy said he believed that many SEAMEO members wanted to learn about this model.

He suggested a deeper exchange between Vietnamese and Indonesian working groups about the model, aiming to improve the quality of education between the two sides.

He also said Indonesia was looking towards sustainable development in education, so the country would focus on vocational training as well as improve the quality of teachers and students, he added.

The two ministers agreed to boost SEAMEO co-operation in sharing experiences of verifying the quality of education, planning the university-education network and exchanging teachers, students and researchers, and recognising the equivalence of certificates among SEAMEO countries.

The SEAMEO is a regional inter-governmental organisation established in 1965 among governments of Southeast Asian countries to promote regional co-operation in education, science and culture in the region.

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.

Việt Nam has two SEAMEO centres located in HCM City, namely the SEAMEO Regional Training Centre and the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Lifelong Learning. — VNS