APEC Education Ministers' Meeting to Identify Comparative Strengths of Asian and Western Educational Systems

Education Ministers from APEC Member Economies will bring together best educational practices from East and West when they meet in Santiago, Chile, on April 29-30.

Meeting under the theme of "Skills for the Coming Challenges" Chile's Education Minister, Mr. Sergio Bitar, who will Chair the meeting, said Ministers will look at options to transfer educational practices between APEC's 21 Member Economies.

"All Member Economies have clear strengths in certain areas and we want to unlock the secrets of these successes and share them," Minister Bitar said.

"The aim of the 3rd Education Ministers' Meeting is to improve education policies and practices throughout the Asia-Pacific by sharing information on learning practices that work.

"For example Asian educational systems have a reputation of excellence in teaching content knowledge in mathematics and science. At the same time Western education systems appear to focus on programs that develop analytical skills for practical implementation.

"The question before Ministers is how to unite the best of both educational structures."

Minister Bitar said bringing together the strengths of several educational systems also calls for consideration of the cultural, demographic and institutional practices in different economies.

"The APEC Region is very diverse with a great depth of educational experience in each Member Economy. The 3rd APEC Education Ministers' Meeting will provide an opportunity to share this experience," Minister Bitar said.

In the lead-up to the Ministerial Meeting, education officials and government representatives have taken part in a series of workshops to review research and policy trends from Eastern and Western perspectives. These areas have since been incorporated into the series of four sub-themes for the meeting:

Additional details on the Themes for the 3rd APEC Education Ministers' Meeting are available at http://www.apec.org/apec/news___media/fact_sheets/emm3_themes.html

The 3rd APEC Education Ministers Meeting will be preceded by the Senior Education Officials Meeting and a pre-Meeting Seminar and Exhibition on the use of information and communication technologies in education. These will include hardware and infrastructure products as well as educational software on 27-28 April.