Prof. Said Irandoust, AIT President, participated in two major international events—the
42nd SEAMEO Council Conference and 2nd ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting, held in Bali,
Indonesia, from 3-16 March 2007. The events were attended by all the ASEAN Ministers of
Education together with other high-ranking officials from the member states as well as
associate / affiliate members / observers, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany,
The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain etc. They provided a strong formal platform
for regional collaboration among high-ranking government officials and educators from
both the ASEAN region and worldwide.
In his keynote address at the events, the President of the Republic of Indonesia emphasized the role of education for the promotion of peace and stability, and digital literacy for the citizens of a globalized world. Coinciding with the event, Indonesia also declared open its ICT education network initiative which will electronically enable higher education institutions, secondary schools, school districts, field units of the Ministry of Education across the country to be linked to each other
AIT’s participation in these two events strengthened the partnership between AIT and the
ASEAN countries.
AIT President had an opportunity to meet individually with the Ministers of Education from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam and briefed them on the new AIT Charter which is currently being finalized. All Ministers expressed great interest and given positive indications that they would seriously consider AIT's request once the formal submission has been made to their respective governments. They further accepted President’s invitation to visit AIT and serve as graduation speakers.
AIT President Irandoust also provided the concept note on AIT's affiliation and partnership with ASEAN member countries to the delegates. The paper highlights areas in which there could be cooperation between AIT and ASEAN and extends an invitation to all ASEAN member countries to enlist as signatories to the new AIT Charter, effectively becoming the Institute's new founding members.
The major issues discussed and highlighted at the SEAMEO Council Conference were:
- Quality assurance also as a means to promote student, faculty, staff mobility;
- Role of higher education towards regional development and poverty reduction such as through the development of a globally competitive agricultural curriculum for Southeast Asia;
- Underlying aspects related to innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and how to better take advantage of the diversity in human and natural resources among ASEAN countries;
- The importance in exploring opportunities in vocational technical education. AIT has a huge potential to engage more in this area; and
- Necessity for universities to develop innovative programs preferably geared towards the professions.
At the SEAMEO conference, Professor Hubert J. Gijzen, Director of the UNESCO Jakarta Office, in his keynote address, referred to AIT as one of its strongest allies and key partner. During the subsequent meeting between AIT President and Professor Gijzen and his
colleagues, AIT and UNESCO Jakarta Office agreed to work towards an MoU to strengthen
their collaboration in the following areas to the interest of UNESCO: coastal zone management; food and biotechnology; Tsunami - early warning systems, disaster management; ICT for development; rural and urban development; gender related issues (how to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in the context of women in rural areas);
curriculum harmonization in Asia and further strengthening of quality assurance in education; role of science education and role of science in supporting the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's); capacity building for disaster management; and capacity building in research and development on bio-energy.
AIT President Irandoust was also interviewed by TV-E (TV Education) a recently launched
TV channel in Indonesia which is supported by the Ministry of Education is and a part of
the ICT education network One of the primary tasks of TV-E is to provide distance based
learning to all the schools in the country. TV-E is interested in discussing partnerships
with AIT in professional training of teachers, provision of ICT platforms etc. and agreed
to visit AIT in the near future.