Rationale

In July 2001, representatives from 12 countries gathered in Bangkok to presented showcases in education reforms. A conclusion drawn from that forum, the First International Forum on Education Reform: Experiences in Selected Countries, is that most countries deem education reform as a bridge to sustainable political, economic, and social development. In many countries, this policy initiative has been strongly emphasized at the national level while others opt for comprehensive implementation at school and community levels. However, both approaches share a critical emphasis on building common strategies ranging from knowledge building, social participation, and effective evaluation, to networking and forming cooperative alliances.

The Office of the National Education Commission of Thailand (ONEC), with the collaboration of many international organizations and embassies in Thailand, has now decided to organize The Second International Forum on Education Reform: Key Factors in Effective Implementation on September 2 - 5, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand, to broaden a comparative perspective on key success factors in reform implementation in 23 countries.

Objective

The objectives of this conference are to:

• review major trends and processes of reform implementation initiated by national and local levels;
• identify key success factors of reform implementation that results in learner-centered approach, school-designed curriculum, school-based management and public participation, and performance- based evaluation,
• demonstrate empirical techniques and changes resulted from reform implementation at central, community, school as well as classroom levels
• create an international network of institutions, policy makers, and researchers engaged in education reform

Theme

The Main theme of this conference is "Education Reform: Key Success Factors of the Implementation Process." There are 6 sub-themes to address specific issues around the main theme, namely:

• Reform of learning, curriculum, and pedagogy;
• Decentralization, school-based management, and school finance;
• Teacher reform;
• Education standards and quality assurance;
• Higher education reform; and
• Information and communication technologies for education and lifelong learning.

Participants (total 435 persons)

• Prominent experts and educators from selected field of education reform,
• Representatives from international organizations such as the World Bank,UNESCO, SEAMEO as well as diplomats from participating countries,
• International participant from 20 countries, and
• Thai education policy makers, educators, academics, and representatives from various agencies.

Date and Venue

September 2 - 5, 2002, Ambassador Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.

Language

The official language of the conference will be English, yet Thai translation shall be provided only in the AM session.

Conference Activities

Publication

Research papers, keynote speech, texts, and summaries of group discussions from every session will be documented in the form of a Forum proceeding paper to be issued in February 2003.

Call for papers

All participants are invited to submit papers on the said themes that highly focus on the empirical reform implementation. Abstracts (600 words) should be submitted by June 30, 2002. A panel of experts will select those papers to be presented at the Forum. Relevance to the theme of the conference and freshness and originality of the approach are among the major considerations in the selection. Each accepted paper will be assigned to a parallel session to be presented by the author for 15 - 20 minutes. Only accepted papers for presentation will be compiled into the official proceedings.

Expected Outcome

• Key success factors that result in sustainable education reform
• International case studies of successful programs of education reform
• MOU for Cooperation between participating countries of the forum
• Publication and proceedings
• Network of policy makers and researchers for education reform

Registration Information

Registration Payment can be made by

1. Money transfer to Krung Thai Bank (Public Company) Ltd. (Sri Yan Branch) , Account Number 012-1-63053-6 (pass book for saving deposit), payable to "The Office for the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Public Organization)
2. Cheque payable to "The Office for the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Public Organization),send to the Forum Secretariat Office (address below)

An application form is enclosed with the brochure. The registration fee covers all sessions, conference materials, refreshment breaks, and lunches (Sept. 3 - 5).