Latest news with #OOSCY
The Star
22-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Brunei aligns with Asean vision for inclusive, future-ready education
Minister of Education Datin Seri Setia Dr Romaizah Md Salleh in a group photo. - Photo: MOE BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Minister of Education (MoE) Datin Seri Setia Dr Romaizah Md Salleh emphasised Brunei Darussalam's commitment to elevate higher education institutions to be globally recognised for their academic reputation, employer recognition, faculty quality and impactful research, producing workforce-ready graduates with evolving skills. She made these comments attending the Asean Ministers of Education Roundtable on Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Mitigating Out of School Children and Youth (OOSCY) Challenges, and the Asean Higher Education Ministers' Roundtable: 'Envisioning the Next Decade and Beyond'. In conjunction with the Asean-Malaysia Chairmanship 2025, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia held two ministerial meetings from June 17 to 20 in Langkawi, Malaysia. The Asean Ministers of Education Roundtable on Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Mitigating OOSCY Challenges was officiated by Malaysia's Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek. The minister emphasised the need to tackle deficits in foundational learning, skill gaps, and youth unemployment, as these issues worsen the challenge of out-of-school children and youth. She underscored Malaysia's commitment to providing equitable access to quality education and opportunities for all young people, especially those currently out of school, to participate meaningfully in society. Dr Romaizah also presented an overview of Brunei Darussalam's Compulsory Education Act, highlighting how it has been strengthened by reducing the mandatory school entry age to five years. This crucial change aims to provide earlier access to schooling for children. To support this, a range of initiatives have been introduced, specifically to assist vulnerable groups. These include programmes like Bantuan Keperluan Persekolahan Tahunan, by providing school essentials and school feeding programmes, all designed as part of a broader effort to address educational challenge. During the Asean Higher Education Ministers' Roundtable, with the theme 'Envisioning the Next Decade and Beyond', Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir highlighted the necessity for higher education institutions to become more inclusive, agile and responsive to real-world demands in the face of rapid technological and industrial changes. Dr Zambry underlined that the goal is to enhance collaboration among governments, academia, and industry to prepare youth for future jobs and create pathways fostering an innovative and cohesive Asean that leaves no one behind. Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the MoE Dr Shamsiah Zuraini Kanchanawati Tajuddin and officials from the Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam were also in attendance during the meetings. Prior to the ministerial roundtable meetings, Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the MoE Dr Shamsiah attended the Asean Education Forum on June 8 to discuss among issues on pertinent information, research findings and sharing of best practices to enhance the accessibility of education for marginalised and disadvantaged children and youth. - Borneo Bulletin/ANN
The Sun
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
ASEAN Education Ministers agree on Langkawi Joint Statement on overcoming school dropouts
LANGKAWI: The Langkawi Joint Statement on Out-of-School Children and Youth (OOSCY) has been agreed by ASEAN Education Ministers as a framework to address the challenges of access to education. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the key content of the document entitled 'Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Addressing the OOSCY Challenges' will be further refined in a seminar ahead of the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur this October. 'We have gone through a long process to reach a consensus on this commitment. Thankfully, no amendments were made and national leaders have given their respective views on how ASEAN can act as a united community to implement interventions and address this issue seriously. 'Malaysia will translate this commitment through the organisation of a seminar in October, and we hope that it can be changed to action after being agreed upon by all Education Ministers as a joint commitment,' she said at a press conference after the ASEAN Education Ministers and Higher Education Ministers Roundtable (#EduRoundtables2025) here today. Fadhlina also stressed that the issue of student dropout as well as the level of numeracy and literacy are closely linked to poverty and must be given serious attention. In Malaysia, for example, she said several interventions have been implemented, including leading the issue of foundational learning through expanding access to preschool education, establishing a special committee to strengthen the curriculum, and examining the need for digital technology reforms, including classrooms powered by artificial intelligence. Langkawi's Joint Statement on OOSCY acknowledges that crises and challenges in the ASEAN region including climate change, conflict situations, deepening poverty, income inequality and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the inequality gap in education. 'We emphasise the urgent need to address educational disparities to ensure inclusive, accessible and high-quality education for OOSCY as underscored in the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Education for OOSCY, adopted in 2016. 'We underscore the necessity for ASEAN Member States to accelerate the implementation of innovative, targeted, and meaningful strategies within and across ASEAN to reduce the number of OOSCY within and across ASEAN states. 'We hereby call upon ASEAN Member States, in collaboration with development partners, civil society, and the private sector, to accelerate the adoption of innovative, technology-enabled and inclusive education strategies that ensure equitable learning opportunities for OOSCY, thereby fostering a resilient and future-ready ASEAN Community,' the document said. Among the strategies highlighted to address OOSCY issues include Technology-Enabled Learning Solutions, AI-powered predictive analytics and data utilisation, capacity-building programmes, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), collaboration with NGOs and civil society organisations. Other strategies are Alternative and Flexible Learning Pathways, Crisis-Responsive Education Policies, Inclusive Education Initiatives, Skills Development and Workforce Readiness, and Cross-Border Collaboration and Data-Driven Decision-Making. This year marks the fifth time Malaysia has served as ASEAN Chairman, having held the position in 1977, 1997, 2005 and 2015.
The Sun
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Use of technology, competent teachers among efforts to address student dropout issues in ASEAN, says Fadhlina
LANGKAWI: ASEAN countries have identified three main interventions in their joint efforts to address the issue of dropouts and out-of-school children and youth (OOSCY), namely the expansion of preschool education, use of technology and competent teachers. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the issue was the main focus during the joint statement session held in conjunction with the two-day ASEAN Education and Higher Education Ministers' Roundtable 2025 (#EduRoundtables2025) which started here yesterday. 'Our focus in this meeting is on the issue of dropouts, out-of-school children and youth, which emphasises several important interventions for us to consider as an ASEAN community to address this issue. 'In the meeting just now, the leaders of these countries have already given their respective views on how ASEAN can move as one community to seriously address this issue together,' she said. According to her, among the initial approaches discussed was the enforcement of compulsory preschool education policies as implemented in Brunei. 'Brunei has already pioneered that agenda, as mentioned in the speech by Brunei's Minister of Education earlier, that among the ways to ensure that children receive their rights is to start by enforcing laws for mandatory preschool education policies. 'We are also looking into that situation, and at the level of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE), we hope to bring it to the next Parliament session. Hopefully, we will have time to present our amendments for the compulsory education policy, starting with secondary schools first,' she said during a press conference after #EduRoundtables2025 here today. Commenting further, Fadhlina said the second focus is on the use of technology as an important tool in addressing the issue of dropouts. 'There are indeed several important approaches to see the need for this technology to become tools in addressing the issue of dropouts. 'I remember that at the MOE level, we have the DELIma (Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia) platform... for teachers to fully utilise this platform to identify several issues of dropouts, memorisation, literacy, and to use all the applications in this DELIma platform for technology use in the classroom and addressing several dropout issues,' she said. Fadhlina also emphasised that besides infrastructure, the need for competent teachers is equally important to support the expansion of early childhood education. 'So, among the concerns expressed and the views from UNESCO and ICESCO (Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is the need to provide competent teachers to ensure that these preschool children can have exposure to early education at the preschool level before starting their formal education at the mainstream level,' she said. She also said that these efforts are in line with the education reforms being implemented by the MOE0, including drafting the new education development plan and the massive expansion of preschool education. Meanwhile, the event began yesterday with a forum themed 'Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Mitigating Out-of-School Children and Youth (OOSCY) Challenges,' aimed at strengthening collective efforts through the sharing of information related to groups lacking access to education and at risk of dropping out, as well as other issues related to dropouts. In addition to ASEAN members and Timor Leste as observers, the ASEAN Education Forum is also being attended by representatives from international organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) and ICESCO. This year marks the fifth time Malaysia has held the ASEAN Chairmanship, having previously held the position in 1977, 1997, 2005 and 2015.
The Star
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Asean ministers agree to Langkawi joint statement on overcoming school dropouts, says Fadhlina
LANGKAWI: The Langkawi Joint Statement on Out-of-School Children and Youth (OOSCY) has been agreed upon by Asean Education Ministers as a framework to address the challenges of access to education. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the key content of the document titled "Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Addressing the OOSCY Challenges" will be refined further in a seminar preceding the 47th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur this October. "We went through a long process to reach consensus on this commitment. Thankfully, no amendments were needed, and national leaders have shared their views on how Asean can act as a united community to implement interventions and address this issue seriously. "Malaysia will bring this commitment to life through the organisation of a seminar in October, and we hope it can be translated into action after being agreed upon by all Education Ministers as a joint commitment," she said at a press conference following the Asean Education Ministers and Higher Education Ministers Roundtable (#EduRoundtables2025) here on Thursday (June 19). Fadhlina also emphasised that the issues of student dropout rates and the levels of numeracy and literacy are closely tied to poverty and must receive serious attention. In Malaysia, for example, several interventions have been implemented, including leading the foundational learning issue by expanding access to preschool education, establishing a special committee to strengthen the curriculum, and examining the need for digital technology reforms, including AI-powered classrooms. Langkawi's Joint Statement on OOSCY acknowledges that crises and challenges in the Asean region, including climate change, conflict situations, deepening poverty, income inequality, and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, have exacerbated educational inequality. "We emphasise the urgent need to address educational disparities to ensure inclusive, accessible, and high-quality education for OOSCY as highlighted in the Asean Declaration on Strengthening Education for OOSCY, adopted in 2016. "We underscore the necessity for Asean Member States to accelerate the implementation of innovative, targeted, and meaningful strategies within and across Asean to reduce the number of OOSCY. "We hereby call upon Asean Member States, in collaboration with development partners, civil society, and the private sector, to accelerate the adoption of innovative, technology-enabled, and inclusive education strategies that ensure equitable learning opportunities for OOSCY, thus fostering a resilient and future-ready Asean Community," the document stated. Among the strategies highlighted to address OOSCY issues are Technology-Enabled Learning Solutions, AI-powered predictive analytics and data utilisation, capacity-building programmes, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), and collaboration with NGOs and civil society organisations. Other strategies include Alternative and Flexible Learning Pathways, Crisis-Responsive Education Policies, Inclusive Education Initiatives, Skills Development and Workforce Readiness, and Cross-Border Collaboration and Data-Driven Decision-Making. This year marks the fifth time Malaysia has served as Asean chairman, having held the position in 1977, 1997, 2005, and 2015. – Bernama
Barnama
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Barnama
ASEAN Education Ministers Agree On Langkawi Joint Statement On Overcoming School Dropouts
Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek on a press conference aftet the ASEAN Ministers of Education and Higher Education Roundtables and Events here today. -- fotoBERNAMA (2025) COPYRIGHT RESERVED LANGKAWI, June 19 (Bernama) — The Langkawi Joint Statement on Out-of-School Children and Youth (OOSCY) has been agreed by ASEAN Education Ministers as a framework to address the challenges of access to education. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the key content of the document entitled "Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Addressing the OOSCY Challenges" will be further refined in a seminar ahead of the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur this October. 'We have gone through a long process to reach a consensus on this commitment. Thankfully, no amendments were made and national leaders have given their respective views on how ASEAN can act as a united community to implement interventions and address this issue seriously. 'Malaysia will translate this commitment through the organisation of a seminar in October, and we hope that it can be changed to action after being agreed upon by all Education Ministers as a joint commitment,' she said at a press conference after the ASEAN Education Ministers and Higher Education Ministers Roundtable (#EduRoundtables2025) here today. Fadhlina also stressed that the issue of student dropout as well as the level of numeracy and literacy are closely linked to poverty and must be given serious attention. In Malaysia, for example, she said several interventions have been implemented, including leading the issue of foundational learning through expanding access to preschool education, establishing a special committee to strengthen the curriculum, and examining the need for digital technology reforms, including classrooms powered by artificial intelligence. Langkawi's Joint Statement on OOSCY acknowledges that crises and challenges in the ASEAN region including climate change, conflict situations, deepening poverty, income inequality and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the inequality gap in education. "We emphasise the urgent need to address educational disparities to ensure inclusive, accessible and high-quality education for OOSCY as underscored in the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Education for OOSCY, adopted in 2016. "We underscore the necessity for ASEAN Member States to accelerate the implementation of innovative, targeted, and meaningful strategies within and across ASEAN to reduce the number of OOSCY within and across ASEAN states.
