RECSAM News_Sept-Dec 2021

3 RECSAM News Vol. 52 - No. 3 SEAMEO 44 th High Official Meeting (Virtual) THE SEAMEO HIGH OFFICIALS MEETING (HOM) is the forerunner of the regular SEAMEO Council Conference organised by the SEAMEO Secretariat. The 44 th SEAMEO HOM was held virtually on 30 November 2021 and was hosted by the SEAMEO Secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand. This year’s virtual Meeting was presided by H. E. Ms. Treenuch Thienthong, Minister of Education Thailand and was attended by the High Officials such as the Secretary General and the Director General of the Ministries of Education of the 11 (eleven) SEAMEO Member Countries. Apart from the High Officials, more than 170 participants comprising representatives from SEAMEO Associate Members; SEAMEO Affiliate Members; 26 SEAMEO Regional Centres/Network; as well as SEAMEO partners from all across the world joined the Meeting with the purpose to discuss the direction of educational, scientific and cultural development in Southeast Asian nations. Several decisions and resolutions were made during the Meeting to ensure that the programmes, projects, activities and initiatives related to the SEAMEO Seven Priorities Areas 2015 - 2035 will be successfully implemented. One of the highlighted working papers was the SEAMEO-Singapore Youth Camp and Challenges (SSYCC). SEAMEO RECSAM was represented by Dr. Shah Jahan Bin Assanarkutty (Centre Director), Mr. Amran Bin Mahadi (Deputy Director, Administration) and Dr. Wan Noor Adzmin Binti Mohd Sabri (Deputy Director, Training and Research). This year, the Centre presented a proposal paper to set-up “Space Science and Technology Education Centre” . Among the key working papers submitted for considerations were: (i) Matters Arising from the Resolutions of the 51 st Governing Board Meeting 2020; (ii) Highlights of the Annual Report for F.Y. 2020/2021; (iii) Strategic and Operational Plans, Programmes and Proposed Budgets for Three Fiscal Years 2022/2023, 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 and Personnel Strength Budget for Fiscal Year Ending 30 th June 2023; (iv) Proposal to Amend SEAMEO RECSAM 2015 Organisational Structure; and (v) Proposal of Staff Motorcycle Financing Scheme. Other information papers reported the updates on the (i) Southeast Asia Basic Education Standards (SEA-BES) Phase 2 research project; (ii) Research Survey Report on SEAMEO RECSAM Regular Courses F.Y. 2018/2019 (Batch 2) and F.Y. 2019/2020 (Batch 1); (iii) Report on Upgrading of ICT and Multimedia Facilities in SEAMEO RECSAM; (iv) Report on the 9 th International Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (CoSMEd) 2021 - Virtual; and (v) Report on SEAMEO Learning Science and Mathematics Together (LeSMaT) in a Borderless World. Over the two-days of discussions, the Board passed a total of 14 (fourteen) resolutions covering programme and administrative matters. The team from SEAMEO RECSAM had the pleasure of meeting its Governing Board Members and had the opportunity to update the Board members on the accomplishments and status of implementation of Centres’ projects and programmes. The annual Governing Board Meeting is an important platform for Governing Board Members nominated by the 11 (eleven) SEAMEO Member Countries to discuss the policy, management and administration of SEAMEO RECSAM, as well as to review the Centre’s achievements in the last fiscal year and planned activities and programmes. The 53 rd SEAMEO RECSAM Governing Board Meeting next year will be held in Phuket, Thailand from 20 - 22 September 2022. from page 2 One for the album Webinar Series on Introduction to the Basic Computational Thinking Skills for Primary Science and Mathematics Teachers A SERIES OF WEBINARS on “Introduction to the Basic Computational Thinking Skills for Primary Science and Mathematics” were conducted by RECSAM’s training and research team, Dr. Loh Su Ling & Mr. Sharfuddin Bin Abdul Shukor (Science) and Dr. Wan Noor Adzmin Binti Mohd Sabri & Dr. Warabhorn Preechaporn (Mathematics) on 9 & 21 September 2021 and 23 September & 1 October 2021 respectively. These webinar series were aimed to equip participants with mathematics problems solving hands-on approach through games, puzzles, and magic tricks as well as related skills in engineering design process in implementing science projects. More specifically, the webinars also introduced participants to the four basic strategies of computational thinking in teaching science and mathematics problems solving. The webinars also exposed them to the knowledge of Scratch and its application to design mathematics teaching material and relate computational thinking with engineering design process to design and produce a product. A total of 71 (Mathematics) and 64 (Science) participants registered for these webinars.