Integrating Technology to Improve the Resilience of ASEAN Education Systems

Education ministers across ASEAN regions expressed the need to develop digital skills among students as the youth felt deprived of digital literacy due to concerns related to affordability, limited infrastructure and lack of information. This initiative involved public-private sector partnerships to support digital transformation and improve resilience of ASEAN education systems. Investing in digital skills for young boys and girls at the right age will help them to acquire new skills, increase connectivity with different communities and exchange/express their thoughts with people globally. In a way, this will help the ASEAN nations to accomplish their social development goals through digitization of education systems.

During the period of school closures such as the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technology encouraged transformative ways of learning. Real-time learning is possible as a result of innovative technologies like big data and artificial intelligence (AI) when integrated with conventional teaching. Use of collaboration tools, immersive media, games and simulations help with peer-to-peer learning and empower students to understand real-world scenarios. Monitoring systems can also be strengthened with digital technology to track student learning and suggest improvements.

Hence, ASEAN education systems are ambitious towards reaching deeper educational standards with sophisticated learning and application of modern digital tools:

• Digital learning platforms enable thousands of qualified teachers and students to register and connect for live learning sessions, informative videos, audio calls and chat boxes.
• Free and open-source technologies enable self-learning. Independent use of technology by students encourages personalized learning with unlimited access to information online.
• Innovative e-learning methods make the learning concepts easier to understand with gaming, story-telling, quizzes, attractive simulations etc.
• Storage, use and sharing of learning materials is simplified with cloud-based applications that enables learners to save files online via cloud technology and access them from anywhere in the world.

ASEAN nations aim at sustainable development that can begin from the grass-root level by investing in the right to digital education. Realizing the learning potential of your population and leveraging innovative technology for practical learning outcomes will help in socio-economic development of the ASEAN countries in the long run.

Moreover, drafting effective policies and a legal framework on digital transformation integrated with education will improve the quality of learning holistically benefitting the ASEAN education systems.