HISTORY OF SEASPF

The South East Asia Educational Leaders met in the Rountable Meeting I (RTM I), initiated by Malaysia, in Genting Highlands, Malaysia in November 2006 with the vision of establishing collaboration and networking among member countries. Inspired by this first meeting, the Educational Leaders met again in the Roundtable Meeting II (RTM II) which was convened in Bali, Indonesia and successfully established the South East Asia School Principals Forum (SEASPF). The signatories of the declaration of establishment of the organization are the delegations from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Its vision is to become the preferred professional organization of all school principals of the Southeast Asian countries. Meanwhile its mission is to provide leadership, professional development and support for school principal associations in the region.

Strategic recommendation emanating from the RTM II, as stated in the Bali Declaration, was to call upon the Ministry of National Education (MONE), Indonesia, to host a permanent Secretariat of SEASPF as well as to transmit the establishment of SEASPF to the SEAMEO (South East Asia Ministry of Education Organization) High Officials Meeting in order to seek the most appropriate support from SEAMEO. Also, one of the recommendations from RTM II is to request MONE to host the First Conference of SEASPF.

As part of the commitment to accelerate the manifestation of the role and function of SEASPF, MONE hosted the First Conference of SEASPF and established the Permanent Secretariat of SEASPF, including the appointment of the officials in charge, and the President of SEASPF. In the effort of seeking the support on the establishment of SEASPF, some officials of this Organization and the staff of the Directorate of Education Personnel of MONE, visited the Ministries of Education of SEAMEO Member Countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) in June and July 2008.

The results of the visit among others are:

1. The inputs for the First Conference of SEASPF agenda;

2. The description/ criteria of the delegation attending the First Conference;

3. The commitment of the Ministry of Education of the Philippines to host the RTM III on 12-14 November 2008 in Manila, Philippines.

School Principals play a very important role in the development of education. The most challenging problem that needs to be solved urgently is to strengthen the quality of school principals’ leadership since it will influence the school climate and the quality of teaching, and will be a major determinant of the quality of education in school. This explains why many schools around the world give a lot of attention to develop school leadership. It was due to this reason that RTM II agreed to form an organization which they named the South East Asia School Principal Forum (SEASPF). This organization is intended to enhance the effort in empowering school principals by tapping the possible modalities existing in the region and beyond.