Leaders from ministries of education in Southeast Asia and international educational experts have discussed the latest teacher professional standards in Southeast Asia.

Educational experts from Southeast Asia discuss teacher professional standards.
(Photo courtesy of SEAMEO RETRAC)

They met at the Regional Workshop on Southeast Asia Teachers Competency Framework, Teachers’ Satisfaction and Motivation in Southeast Asia in Ho Chi Minh City on April 19.

The Southeast Asia Teachers Competency Framework was initiated in 2017 as a set of standards for teacher education, recruitment and professional development.

The framework, approved by the SEAMEO Council last year, is expected to be adopted in the whole region. 

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Hoang Duc Minh, director general of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Department of Teachers and Educational Managers, said that teaching methodologies should be changed to adapt to development trends.

This requires educational systems to develop policies equipping teachers with essential professional competencies to deal with challenges and requirements in their teaching, he said.

Teachers need to make extensive efforts to improve their professional level in order to keep up with the requirements and demands of innovative teaching and education in the context of international integration and globalisation.

Development of teachers towards professional standards is an advanced model. The effectiveness of this model has been recognised by researchers, educational managers and educational systems around the world, Minh said.

Many countries have been developing teacher professional standards and the teacher evaluation mechanism to support the development of teacher professional competences, thereby improving the quality of national education, he added.

The competency framework is considered as a guideline for self-study and personal professional development plans among teachers in Southeast Asia to gradually improve their own teaching and the quality of learning.

The workshop was organised by SEAMEO Regional Training Center (SEAMEO RETRAC) in collaboration with the SEAMEO Secretariat.