LOS BAÑOS, Laguna --Morocco is the first African and Arab country to be admitted to the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), an intergovernmental organization founded in 1965 to promote cooperation in education, science, and culture among Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines.

There are 26 SEAMEO specialist institutions, with the Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Regional Center Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) being one of the oldest. The two others based in the Philippines are the SEAMEO Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (INNOTECH) in Quezon City and Regional Centre for Public Health Hospital Administration, Environmental and Occupational Health (TROPMED-Philippines) in Manila.

The Philippines is represented in the SEAMEO Council by Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones. The SEAMEO Council is composed education ministers from 11 Member Countries, namely: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

The membership of Morocco was approved at the virtual 51^st SEAMEO Council Conference held last month, which was attended by H.E. Abdelilah El Housni, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. 

Morocco joins Australia, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom as SEAMEO Associate Member.

This status, which confirms the strategic position of Morocco as a crossroads of cultures between the East, Africa, and Europe, shows the trust placed in the Moroccan education system, the Embassy of the Kingdom in Bangkok said in a statement.

According to the Bangkok-based SEAMEO Secretariat, its SEAMEO Associate Member status “supports the strategic guidelines of the Kingdom's New Development Model, particularly in the section devoted to positioning Morocco as a regional hub for higher education, research, and innovation.”

Moreover, the SEAMEO Secretariat said its SEAMEO membership “gives privileged access to Morocco for the promotion of cooperation with all countries of the Southeast Asian region in the fields of education, scientific research, and culture and paves the way for active participation in the programs and projects of the Organization.”

SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio affirmed that “SEAMEO needs more partner countries to pursue lifelong learning and appreciate the value of education especially in this time of pandemic and even in the post pandemic.”

“The participation of the Kingdom of Morocco as an Associate Member of SEAMEO will constitute more substantive cooperation in the education field based on the South-South and win-win partnership between the Kingdom of Morocco and Southeast Asian countries. The priority areas of collaboration include the areas of Mobility and Exchanges, Research and Collaboration, and Higher Education,” the SEAMEO Secretariat said.