Events

7 December 2023

The 9th EEA Meeting webinar in December 2023 will highlight ‘Flexible Learning for Policy Development Towards Inclusion for All’

7 December 2023 - 1:30 pm - 7 December 2023 - 2:45 pm

Location: Pathum Thani, Thailand

Rooms: Pathum Thani, Thailand

Type: Cat VIII - Symposia

Arrangement type: Virtual

The Equitable Education Alliance (EEA; est. 2020), co-chaired by the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok and Thailand’s ‘Equitable Education Fund’, is a community of organizations, government ministries, agencies, and NGOs advocating a more inclusive and equitable educational system in the region, while simultaneously enhancing the performance of existing equitable education organizations at all levels. 

The EEA convenes four meetings annually to discuss and improve equity in education through collaborative efforts. A total of 18 countries^[1] and 22 local and international organizations^[2] have participated in these meetings, to date, mutually sharing the expertise they are applying to the promotion and fostering of equity in education systems locally and regionally.

In the Asia and Pacific region, young workers are increasingly educated yet lack decent work opportunities in the COVID-19 period. One in four young workers are living in conditions of extreme or moderate poverty (below US$3.20/day), versus 18 per cent of adults. Globally, 30 per cent of young people were NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). Nearly three quarters of NEETs in Asia and the Pacific are young women, many of whom engage in care and own-production work in the home.^[3]

Moreover, there is a need to create a more inclusive school environment for LGBTIQ+ youth, as well as for students with special needs. Discrimination at school faced by LGBTIQ+ youth remains a crucial issue, as they continue to encounter higher rates of various kinds of campus-based violence, and roughly 45 per cent of them globally report being bullied.^[4] This situation results not only in rising dropout rates and lower academic performance, but has the potential to negatively impact a young learner’s physical and mental health well beyond their school years. Greater efforts must be made to increase these learner’s sense of safety and engagement throughout their school activities. In addition, students with special needs should be especially considered towards fulfilling the goals of Education for All, given that 50 per cent of children with disabilities have been recently reported as not attending school in the developing countries of Asia-Pacific, with the rate of non-attendance as high as 90 per cent in some rural areas.^[5] To this end, educators must act promptly and respond positively to all learners with particular disabilities or difficulties throughout the progression of their studies. Joint contributions from schools and governments towards strengthening technical assistance inputs and providing more bespoke curricula are also required for ensuring more inclusive schooling for all.

In response to these issues, as well as others, the 9th EEA Meeting will highlight the theme ‘Flexible Learning for Policy Development Towards Inclusion for All’ as it applies to the national and local levels. The Meeting will consist of two parts, namely a public session and a closed-door, ‘EEA-member-only’ session. The 9th EEA Meeting also aims to summarize the successes, challenges and general reflections of EEA in 2023, and to initiate potential collaborative opportunities by identifying contact points which might together act as a basis for the further development of EEA itself, and for the development of key EEA activities and the monitoring of their progress in 2024.

As an ongoing complement to the annual EEA meetings, the Equitable Education Hub (EquityEdHub, or EEH) was launched in 2022 as a knowledge-sharing hub expressly intended to 1) enable learners from around the world to readily access content on several topics pertaining the EEA’s goals towards improving equity in education through collaborative efforts; and 2) provide substantive and technical support to those in need. 

Objectives – 9th EEA Meeting Webinar

Public Session:

1. Share insights and strategies regarding educational policies for gender minorities to understand what proactive steps schools, governments, and legal systems can take to prevent bullying, promote understanding, and enhance the mental well-being of young learners. Explore the hurdles and achievements in implementing comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in Thailand, and examine the future directions for CSE implementation on both national and local levels

2. Share the project implementation, development and outcomes of regional organizations, such as ASEAN Foundation, to support young workers and youth who are currently not in employment, education or training (NEET), and demonstrate how to provide flexible learning opportunities to underserved groups in ASEAN by collaborating with external stakeholders

3. Explore the various measures that governments, educational institutions, and educators can undertake to enhance support and technical assistance for the effective inclusion of special needs students in mainstream education

Closed-Door Session (EEA members only):

1. Discussion on the preparations of the 3rd ‘All For Education’ (AFE) October 2024
2. Report and discuss the progress of identified activities by lead organizations
3. Summarizing the successes, challenges and general reflections of EEA in 2023
4. Brainstorm and formulate EEA's development plans and phases for 2024

Participants

• Local education administrators, district directors, school principals, teachers and other partners promoting equity in education
• Practitioners; LGBTQ+ communities, education practitioners for NEETs, students with special needs, and LGBTQ+ groups
• Potential EEA members, including government agencies, policy-makers, NGOs, academics, and like-minded organizations and countries
• EEA members, including Member States, countries and organization representatives, practitioners, technical experts, and international agencies that advocate and work towards equitable education.

Dates and Venue
Thursday, 7 December 2023, online webinar, 13.30–14.45 (UTC+7)

Please click here to register. 

Please register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the proceedings. Note: The capacity of the Zoom meeting is 500 participants on a first come, first-served basis.

The 9th EEA Meeting will be live-streamed on the EEH Facebook page in English, and on the EEF Thailand Facebook page in Thai. This is a bilingual session with a Thai translation service provided throughout the programme.

Provisional Agenda

Public session: 

Facilitator: Ms Min-Seon Park, Programme Specialist, National Institute For Lifelong Education (NILE), ROK 

Welcoming Remarks (5 mins)
Opening Note by NILE (tentative)

Open Knowledge-Sharing Session (45 mins)
Flexible Learning for Policy Development Towards Inclusion for All

• Speaker 1: NEETS 
  Mr Ilan Asqolani (Project Manager, ASEAN Foundation)
• Speaker 2: School reality for LGBTQ+ 
  Dr Timo Ojanen (Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education, Thammasat University)
• Speaker 3: Special Needs
  Asst Prof Chanisa Tantixalerm (Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University) 

Q&A (25 mins)
Discussion and Q & A

Closing Remarks (5 mins)
Closing Note by NILE (tentative)

Break - 15 mins

Closed-Door Session (EEA members only):

Facilitator: Yunkang Liu, Consultant, UNESCO Bangkok

Opening (5 mins)
Introduction by Facilitator

Updates & Feedbacks (10 mins)

• Project updates 
• EEA Member Feedback

AFE 2024 (20 mins)

• EEF to lead the discussion on the preparations of the 3rd AFE 2024 by Anan and Kitiporn.
• EEA member discussion on mirror board 

General Updates from Members (20 mins)

• GPE - ‘Leaving no one behind’: Co-publication Blog 
• VVOB - mapping exercise
• UNESCO Bangkok - Project progress, summary and future prospects

Closing (5 mins)
Closing Remarks and updates on 10th EEA Meeting by Facilitator