The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization – Regional Language Center (SEAMEO RELC) lauded Filipino teacher-scholars and encouraged more to join the in-service language teacher professional development courses.

Susan Leong, the Centre Director, said that the institution commends Filipino scholars’ participation in the program and that they are performing well in their courses.

“My teaching faculty is very happy with the scholars of the Philippines because they’ve always done well and they’re valuable participants of the courses they are in,” she said.

RELC, one of the 26 SEAMEO centers in the region, is a language education facility based in Singapore. The Center offers a wide array of regular and customized courses, trainings, and capacity building workshops for teachers. It also serves as platform for knowledge sharing among language researchers, classroom practitioners, and language specialists.

Anchored on its mission to promote language education among teaching professionals in the region and international cooperation, SEAMEO’s two main programs are to offer regular courses for in-service language teachers of English on RELC scholarships, and to organise the annual RELC International Conference.

From financial year 2018-2019 to financial year 2022-2023, SEAMEO-RELC has granted 54 Filipino teacher-participants scholarships for the language teacher professional development courses offered by the Centre. SEAMEO-RELC, however, said that the number declined during the pandemic years when the institution transitioned to online blended learning.

“I would like to thank Your Excellency and the Department of Education-Philippines, for the strong support given for RELC scholarship program, as can be seen in the number of nominations received from the Philippines, except for the two years affected by the covid-19,’ Leong expressed to the Vice President Duterte.

Director Leong noted that the centre received more nominations this year and encouraged the Department of Education-Philippines to nominate more teachers. “If we have additional places because other countries’ nominees do not meet the criteria, we are happy to consider the additional nominations from the Philippines for Filipino educators to join the courses.”

RELC conducts short language teacher professional development courses, in addition to longer courses such as the MTESOL and its flagship Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics that has been offered every year since 1972.

“RELC offers three-week advanced Specialist Certificate courses on different aspects of language education that add up to micro-credentials where teachers can transfer their credentials to the longer postgraduate diploma in applied linguistics,” Leong said.

The RELC International Conference, on the other hand, is an annual language convention of educators since it began operations in 1968.

Leong said that RELC wished to see more teachers from the Philippines participating in the annual gathering.

“There have been 9 speakers and 26 participants from the Philippines who have attended the RELC conference in the past 5 years. Again, thank you for the support and we hope to see more in the future,” she told the Philippine delegation.

During the visit, VP Duterte met with Ms. Aileen Taopo Bajaro, a junior high school English teacher from Catanduanes National High School and a scholarship recipient of Master of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MTESOL).

Bajaro said the scholarship enables her to gain fresh perspectives and new learning strategies to share with her students.

“Malaking bagay po na mabigyan ako ng opportunity para maging isa sa mga scholars ng MTESOL because it was able to open a lot of perspectives in me, in my teaching strategies, and approaches. Dahil dito, I am excited to share the knowledge that I learned and practice yung mga natutunan ko,” she expressed in an interview.

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, who is also the current SEAMEO Council President, and who expressed interest in offering the support to Filipino teachers for their professional development, assured RELC that the Department of Education will link up with the alumni of RELC and ask them how we can support more teachers to attend the conference.’

VP Duterte’s visit in Singapore on June 14 was part of her inaugural SEAMEO Presidency visit to educational centers in its 11 member-countries. On June 12, SEAMEO President Duterte first embarked to visit basic education schools and the SEAMEO VOCTECH center in Brunei Darussalam. OVP MEDIA