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2004 APEC Education Ministerial Meeting

Santiago, Chile | 29 April 2004

I. Introduction

  1. We, the Education Ministers representing APEC's 21 Member Economies, convened our Third Meeting in Santiago, Chile, on April 29-30, 2004, under the Chairmanship of H.E. Sergio Bitar, Minister of Education, Chile.

  2. We met under the policy theme of "Skills for the Coming Challenges", to foster linkages and to strengthen collaborative initiatives in the field of education. We agreed to promote equitable and sound opportunities for our communities to make the most of their potential to achieve our goals of greater economic integration, openness, and prosperity for our peoples.

II. Recent Developments in the APEC Region

  1. Since we last met in Singapore, on April 7, 2000, APEC's Economic Leaders have met on four occasions and the overall APEC vision remains the same: Achieving stability, security, and prosperity for our people. Through the Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG), the Education Network (EDNET) has been able to implement initiatives endorsed by the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in February 2003 and in Part II of the Osaka Action Plan (OAA), including: Quality basic education, Lifelong learning, Improved curricula, Teaching methods and instructional materials for the 21st century, Enhanced quality of the labor force and mobility of qualified persons.

  2. We recognized the challenge in balancing the economic goals of education and training, through the preparation of a skilled labor force to stimulate sustainable economic growth, and the non-economic goals including personal development and fostering civic education and cultural identity, within the APEC Region.

  3. We renewed our commitment to support EDNET within HRDWG and recognized that it is a driving force that can add positive value in collaborative initiatives in the field of education-related issues in the APEC Region. Work that is being accomplished through EDNET can bring forward better education and training opportunities to develop the needed skills that will allow our communities to face the challenges of the 21st century.

  4. We acknowledged the accomplishments of EDNET towards the goals we outlined in 2000 and note in reviewing those strategic areas that were prioritized at our Second APEC Education Ministers´ Meeting in Singapore, we have been able to successfully complete joint initiatives in the field of Information Technology; Teacher Preparation; Education Management and the enhancement of cooperation as well as the exchange of experts and expertise. A list of completed and current EDNET projects is attached as Annex A.

  5. We observed how EDNET has matured as an organization since 2000. Participation has continued to grow; the organization has gained greater focus; strategic alliances with the private sector, other international organizations in the region and across APEC fora have been made; and EDNET has made progress towards the Leaders´ priority of building knowledge-based society.

  6. We acknowledged that EDNET organized a successful summit of researchers and policy-makers in Beijing in January 2004 in preparation for this 3rd AEMM to ensure recommendations reflect the most up-to-date research and policy trends. In this regard, we noted the generic signals that emerged from studying the four theme reports prepared for this meeting. These signals should guide our officials as they continue to work through EDNET: ensuring gender analysis and perspectives, encouraging a mix of actors, overcoming resource constraints, emphasizing professional training, encouraging community and parental support, and improving transparency and sharing assessments.

III. Facing Educational Challenges with Collaborative Strategies

  1. Building upon the successful work to date, we defined the following four priority areas for future network activities: Teaching English and Other Foreign Languages; Stimulating Learning in Mathematics and Science; Using Technology for Teaching and Learning; and Governance and Systemic Reform in Education.

  2. The wealth of knowledge and experience that exists in the APEC Region in the four areas was demonstrated through the discussions and deliberations in Santiago. This was specially demonstrated through the existence of the Knowledge Bank of Education Policy and Practices, (www.apecneted.org/knowledgebank), an APEC site that is currently available publicly through the Asia Pacific Network for Education Web Portal (www.apecneted.org) - a joint initiative of APEC Cyber Education Cooperation (ACEC), the APEC Education Foundation (AEF), and the APEC Education Network (APEC EDNET). To share the benefits of the Knowledge Bank, the use of languages other than English is also encouraged.

  3. A number of challenges emerged under the four key themes discussed at the meeting:

    • Improving the learning of English and other foreign languages at the school level is essential to ensure long-term impact. This will be achieved by setting and measuring clear standards and implementing context-relevant strategies for professional development of teachers. However, the importance of learning of English and other foreign languages is not limited to traditional students; it extends to workers, small business entrepreneurs, women, and disadvantaged groups, to enable them to interact successfully in a globalized world.

    • Curriculum reform, notably in Languages, the Sciences and Mathematics, must be considered in the context of the community as a whole to overcome the weaknesses in a given system, while preserving the existing strengths.

    • While basic instruction in ICT is important to learn, ICT's strength appears to be in supporting other subjects. More research is needed to elucidate the factors affecting learning in this context.

    • Establishing strong pedagogical foundations for the use of ICT in education will facilitate the integration of ICT into the school curriculum. Sustainable communities of practice among teachers, students, researchers and other stakeholders will allow us to leverage on each other's experience, knowledge and research findings on innovative uses of ICT in learning and teaching.

    • Economies need effective governance including transparent, accountable, regulatory, accreditation, and quality assurance systems, and also policy and program delivery in order to provide the best educational outcomes. Better connections between researchers and policy makers will support the successful application of governance models, school and curriculum reforms within economies' education systems. More comprehensive, longitudinal studies are needed in order to obtain helpful data for decision-making.

IV. Putting Words into Action

  1. We have therefore instructed our senior officials to evaluate and prioritize the recommendations highlighted in each of the four priority areas in Annex B.

    2. For a successful collaboration, EDNET will use the following guidelines:

    • Undertaking joint research projects addressing fundamental cognitive, empirical and policy matters in the four main priority areas.

    • Identifying and sharing of promising practices on the four priority areas through on-site and online networking communities to connect researchers, students, teachers, children, adult learners and common interest groups.

    • Promoting student and professional mobility as well as joint professional development resources and exchange opportunities, to allow for extended use of limited resources on the four priority areas.

  1. We requested that EDNET give careful attention to identifying specific mechanisms required to effectively implement our prioritized recommendations. This includes investigating the rich internal resources available in each of our economies, including our research organizations and universities and building on the activities already taking place in our Ministries to achieve these shared goals.

  2. A point stressed by many economies was the need to capitalize on and add value to work related to education being done by other international groups, such as OECD, OAS, SEAMEO and UNESCO. A special concern was the economic pressure being felt in each economy and, therefore, the need to focus limited resources on high quality projects and partnerships.

  3. We requested that EDNET work with other relevant APEC Fora, including APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), to develop a Strategic Plan for English and Other Languages in the APEC Region that would take into account each economy´s context. We encourage our counterparts responsible for Trade, SMEs and Tourism, to instruct their senior officials so as to collectively develop the Plan for the APEC Region, taking on board the strengths that these sectors can offer for the positive, long-term development of this initiative, with an aim of presenting a progress report to APEC Economic Leaders when they meet in Santiago on November 20-21, 2004.

  4. We requested that EDNET, through the HRD Working Group, report on conclusions reached at the 3rd Education Ministerial Meeting at the next meeting of the APEC Economic Leaders in Santiago, Chile on November 20-21, 2004, and provide the Ministers with an Annual Report of Progress towards the goals we have established.