I.

BACKGROUND

The ASEAN was founded by the five founding fathers Malaysia, Indonesia, the

Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand on the 8th day of August, 1967. It was later on joined

by Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Burma. It was mentioned how the ASEAN was

formed with the fundamental principle of being recognized as one economic community to

compete globally, without the interference in each others internal affairs, and with the

cooperation of one another.

In 2007, the members of the Asean countries approved a blueprint to guide each

member on initiatives and measures to achieve regional integration which is scheduled for

2015. Asean integration allows its member-countries (and the citizens of those countries) to

join in the free flow of capital, labor, services, goods, and foreign investments. The AEC has

three goals: (1) the integration of ten economic communities by 2015, (2) making the

ASEAN community as a socially responsible, socio-cultural community, and (3) having

peaceful cooperation among member nations.

It has three pillars: ASEAN Political Security Community, ASEAN Economic

Community, and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community forming the roadmap or ASEAN

Community 2015.. CHED, along with the Department of Education and the Technical

Education and Skills Development Authority, fall under the third pillar. The lead Philippine

agency in the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) is the Department of Social

Welfare and Development. Under the Socio-Cultural Community is education which will be

given emphasis in this discussion.

II. RATIONALE

The roadmap to Asean Community 2015 consists of four blueprints and these must be

taken perforce as one. Central to the 4th blueprint on a socio-cultural community is the

significance of education in promoting peoples well-being and human dignity. Former

Ambassador Rosalinda V. Tirona in her keynote speech during the 31st national assembly of

the World Council on Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI) held in Manila on 4-6 February

2015, talked on the Globalized education and how it would encourage Asean higher

education institutions to actively adjust to the shifting dynamics of global education towards

open access for public scrutiny especially with respect to their quality, effectiveness and

efficiency in delivering higher education products such as poverty alleviation through the

provision of quality goods and services.

In a CHED briefing paper released by its International Affairs Service (IAS) in March

2014, Chairperson Patricia Licuanan admitted that the country needs to catch up with the

much earlier preparations of its ASEAN partners.

Apart from the action plan, Licuanan said the following need to be accomplished: (1) a

policy framework for the Internationalization of Higher Education, (2) the inclusion of

more Philippine universities in the ASEAN University Network (AUN), (3) participation in

the ASEAN International Mobility of Students (AIMS) Program, and (4) the development of

a better credit transfer system and Diploma Supplement which will enable the comparability

of Philippine higher education with those of other countries.

This poses questions whether we are ready for the ASEAN integration and how long can

we truly realized this.

III. ANALYSIS

It may be a long shot before a single higher education system in Asean can be

established, but its roots already exist. The government continuously improve and find

resources in preparing the education sector for ASEAN Integration. The DepEd received the

biggest chunk from the 2016 national budget to support the needed reforms in line with the K

to 12 curriculum. On the other hand, CHED has already laid the pathway for the

realization of a common regional educational space by embarking on a total transformation

involving the following Key result areas: 1) rationalization of the functions of higher

education , 2) quality assurance and 3) equal accessibility especially to deserving but poor

students. In 2014, CHED also took initiatives on the following:

Development of ASEAN 2015 Roadmap for Higher Education

Inclusion of Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology in the AUN-Southeast

Asia Engineering Education Development Network

Hosting of AUN regional conferences

Adoption of the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific Credit Transfer Scheme

Hosting the 7th AIMS Review Meeting

Participation in ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF) meetings and

ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area-Economic Cooperation Work Programme

workshops

Conduct of AQRF workshop

Participation in ASEAN Quality Assurance Network meetings

Inclusion in the ASEAN Citation Index

Publication of Enhanced Policies and Guidelines on Student Affairs ad Services

 Distribution of electronic copies of the Guidelines for Accommodating PWDs in Post-

Secondary and Tertiary Institutions

Co-hosting the 6th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information

Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management with De La Salle

University

Co-hosting the 1st ASEAN Future Teachers Camp with the Philippine Normal University

(PNU)

Preparation of the Revised Policies, Standards, and Guidelines (PSGs) on the Student

Internship Abroad Program

Signing of memoranda with the Republic of Singapore, the Ministry of University Affairs of

Thailand, and the Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Negotiating memoranda with Indonesia and the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

Framework for a typology-based quality assurance system for PH higher education

These initiatives include, among others, the establishment of a quality assurance system for

the Philippine Qualifications Framework; the shift to learning competency-based standards or

learner outcomes-based qualifications in the disciplines; revision of the general education

curriculum with the implementation of K to 12; review of graduate education and transnational

programs; close collaboration with industry in specifying competencies and training of teachers

in industry-oriented disciplines; and embarking on the Philippine California Advanced Research

Institutes. With these initiatives soon the educational pros will out weight the cons and this will

marked a good sign to face the integration.

 There are so many things that the Education stakeholders must consider before we could be

ready with the integration.The competencies of the 21st centuries must also be realized and be

promoted from basic education to higher educational institutions. By Continuously fine tuning

the Philippine Qualifications Framework and with the Deped, Tesda, CHED and PRC working

hand in hand, soon this will be realized though it would be a long process.

IV. CONCLUSION

We really need to strengthen our educational policies especially in higher education.

Universities and colleges should have the initiatives on how they would contribute on developing

an educational policy framework that would meet the needs of Asean integration. More so, on

how HEIs would attract foreign students in their institutions to promote mobility one feature of

the integration. What we need is to act together for the realization of the Asean goals until we

become center in ASEAN.

V. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. CHED with the HEIs must revisit the curriculum so as to meet the 21st century skills

of every graduates and be competitive.

2. College/ University Scholarships for the students.

3. Faculty trainings and scholarships.

4. Opportunity for studies/ trainings in Asian countries

5. CHEDs review of HEIs curricula to ensure good schools

6. Research Funding
REFERENCES:

Pasha Hsieh, "The ASEAN Economic Community and the Legal Services Market",

Singapore Law Blog (19 December 2014)

(http://www.singaporelawblog.sg/blog/article/70)

Romualdo, P. (2014, October 20) in ASEAN Integration, UP Forum. Retreived from

www.up.edu.ph/ched-gears-up-for-asean-2015/

Sellier, E. (2016, January 12). The asean Economic Community:The Force Awakens.

Retreived from http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/the-asean-economic-

community-the-force-awakens/

Macaranas, F. (2015). Asean 2015: Challenges and Opportunities for Educators Retreived

from http://asean.aim.edu/research/presentations/ asean-2015-challenges-and-

opportunities-for-educators/
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Manila

TOPIC: ASEAN INTEGRATION

DEM 743 Seminar in Contemporary Issues
and Trends in Education

Presented to:

DR. CATHERINE Q. CASTAEDA

by:

LORENA S. CLUB

February 2016