Background

In October 2014, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education through the SEAMEO Council has adopted the SEAMEO Education Agenda or the seven priority areas for SEAMEO to work together to improve quality education in Southeast Asia. “Revitalizing Teacher Education” is one of the priority areas in achieving quality education for the region. In order to fulfill this mandate, the SEAMEO Secretariat has initiated a project titled, “Pre-Service Student Teacher Exchange in Southeast Asia (SEA-Teacher Project)”.

The Objectives of the Project

The SEA-Teacher project aims to provide opportunity for pre-service student teachers from universities in Southeast Asia to have teaching experiences (practicum) in schools in other countries in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the aims of the SEA – Teacher Project are:

1. to enable the student teachers to develop their teaching skills and pedagogy.
2. to encourage the student teachers to practise their English skills.
3. to allow the student teachers to gain a broader regional and world view.
4. to expose future teachers to diverse teaching and learning situations and opportunities, and the value of flexibility.

Modes for Implementation

The exchange is preferably for the 3rd – 4th year students (Bachelor Degree), studying in Faculty of Education and Teacher College whose majors are in Math, Science, English, Pre-school Education, Elementary/Primary School, Economics, Physical Education, and Social Studies. The duration of the exchange programme is one month, which is based on the mechanism of cost sharing. English is used in all activities throughout the programme and the student teachers’ roles and responsibilities are assigned weekly during the one-month practicum. The receiving universities are required to provide mentors to supervise and monitor the inbound students throughout the practicum period as well as providing buddies during the exchange period.