Ever heard about SEAMEO?
Yes, SEAMEO stands for Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.  This organization was established in 1965 through SEAMEO Charter signed by 7 Ministers of Educations of Southeast Asian countries.  Now SEAMEO has 15 centers that work on particular subjects and 6 of them are located in Indonesia.
Last Tuesday (23 February 2010), Ibu Yayan Nurmayanti and Ibu Alfi Afifah from SMP Madania had an opportunity to attend the 42nd anniversary of SEAMEO BIOTROP.  On this occasion we had the opportunity to meet other SEAMEO center representatives, especially those who are related to our activities at school.  SEAMEO QITEP in Language, SEAMEO QITEP in Mathematics and SEAMEO QITEP in Science are some of the centers that offer improvement programs for teachers. Other centers such as SEAMEO SEAMOLEC (Regional Open Learning Center) offers opportunities for our school to build partnerships with other schools in Southeast Asia and Australia.
From October to November 2009, one of our teachers joined a two-week workshop held by SEAMEO QITEP in Language.  In this workshop our teacher had an opportunity to share and discuss the curriculum and teaching methods of the Mandarin language with other teachers from Southeast Asian countries.  Through this gathering, we looked for other opportunities for our teachers and school staff to join Quality Improvement of Teachers and Educational Personal programs held by SEAMEO.
Ibu Nurma herself has joined several workshops facilitated by SEAMEO BIOTROP.  As the UN declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, we also look for possibilities to conduct joint programs between Madania and SEAMEO BIOTROP to celebrate the year.  Hopefully our relationship with SEAMEO centers will bring advantages to our teachers and students.