SPEECH BY H.E. MR.MOENIR ARI SOENANDA,
CONSUL GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, PENANG
ON THE OCCASION OF THE CERTIFICATE PRESENTATION CEREMONY
OF THE THIRD COUNTRY TRAINING PROGRAMME (TCTP )
SEAMEO-RECSAM
Penang, 7 November 2008


Assalamualaikum w.w and a very good afternoon,

Dr. Azian Tengku Syed Abdullah, Director SEAMEO RECSAM,
Bapak Aristono, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia,
Dr. Sohela Gholamazad, TCTP Colombo Plan Representative ,
Heads of Division & Staff of SEAMEO RECSAM,
Course Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is indeed my pleasure to be here this afternoon, on the occasion of the Certificate Presentation Ceremony for the teachers representing from 10 Colombo Plan member countries. It has been a great excitement for me to see so many participants from different nationalities with diverse cultural background, but with the same profession, gathering in this Hall, celebrating the successful end of the course which you have attended at this Center.

I am quite sure that this occasion has been a great moment for you, ready to go home with the new found excellent knowledge. You are now ever ready to go back and do your teaching in your classroom with full confidence and pride. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for the completion of the course and I hope that this will enhance your teaching career with the new teaching strategies.

In this occasion, I would like to thank the SEAMEO-RECSAM for its dedication in providing the infrastructure and necessary knowledge in upgrading the teaching skills for participants attending this four weeks course. Above all, we would like also to thank the Colombo Plan, as the regional inter-governmental organization, in forging a series of economic and social development programmes for the advancement of the people in South and Southeast Asia region for the past 50 years.

The funds which came from the Secretariat and the host country Malaysia, has kept this particular programme achieving the progress despite the current economic downturn.


I am also proud that SEAMEO-RECSAM as a regional center, has been hosting several training course not only for SEAMEO member countries in Southeast Asia but also for countries from South Asia and several African nations as well.
The Centre has conducted similar training programmes in the framework of Third Country Training Programme for teachers or educators coming from 10 African countries last August.

This is truly a great achievements and I would like to congratulate the Staff of SEAMEO-RECSAM for upgrading the status of the Centre in providing education training programme needs to countries beyond the region.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As educators, sometimes it is necessary to look at the development of education globally and beyond the scope of our school, in order for us to be sensitive to the effectiveness of the things that we are doing in the classroom.

As we are fully aware that the trend of education today has changed dramatically over the decades. These changes have been made with the intention of making education available to all children as well as to keep the children prepared with the challenges facing them when they are growing up in this modern world.

The future socio-economic status of the world can only be brought up if our children are given free access to education starting from pre-school and primary education whenever they are living.

We are thankful that there are now regional bodies like Colombo Plan and other world bodies that are keeping track in ensuring the education for all and can be reached to all. The challenges facing the implementers of education for all are very unique to some countries. Children are put off from schools due to social, economical, environmental and health aspects.

In order to overcome those barriers, there must be a holistic approach of development in every aspect and strata of the society. Educational research studies shown that there are 3 main factors that have been listed to enhance such development, namely :

1. Ensuring children’s access to education.

This is of course involving the improvement of school enrollment in developing countries. It is important not only to construct and rehabilitate schools but also to raise awareness of parents and community about the value of educating their children. Non-formal education is an effective way to provide basic education to children and adults who never have a change to attend school or dropped out from school.

2. Improving the quality of education.
Low quality education is caused by multiple factors, including a lack of trained teachers, their low level of motivation and teaching skills, a lack of textbooks and learning materials, irrelevant curriculum etc. Among these factors, the quality of teachers has the biggest impact on improving the quality of education.

3. Improving the management of education.
This is essential to encrease access to education, improving the quality, reducing disparities in education and maintaining the positive results generated by such efforts. To this end, it is important to build capacities of education policy makers and service providers to implement education reforms effectively, understand and analyze the situation of education accurately, and develop policies based on such analysis.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I see that the role of teachers are very important and even, in the centre piece of the efforts in upgrading the literacy rate of any country. Teachers are playing an important role in moulding the creation of an informed and educated society.

Being science and mathematics teachers for primary and secondary schools, you no doubt, formed part of an important pillar in determining the aspects of lives in the generation of our children.

Whatever policies that is developed by your political masters and decision makers, whatever goals that the international body would like you to achieve, teachers are the implementers that determine the success of their own educational development programme.

This is even true when it is known today that science, mathematics and their attributes are the subjects that spur future economic development. These subjects have now been identified as the important tools in the creation of wealth and in modernizing the infrastructure of a country.

As a matter of fact, teachers work for these noble objective behind the scene which perhaps, one day, you will see the fruits of your hard work when you see your present generation of children change the future destiny of your country toward prosperity.

It is therefore, there is no more noble profession than educating our children. However, to do that, we have to be a teacher with full of confidence and creativity in our teaching profession. A compentent teacher has an open mind and heart to accept changes.

I believe this is the reason of why you are here today and I am glad that your patient has finally paid you off with knowledge vital for that change to take place in your classroom teaching.

Once again, I would like to congratulate you for this occasion and I do hope that your overseas training in SEAMEO-RECSAM would contribute to the development of the education system in your country in tandem with the Colombo Plan objective in promoting and supporting the economic and social development through quality education system in the Asia Pacific region.

Thank you very much.
Wassalam ww.