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Suthasri Wongsamarn, permanent-secretary for the Ministry of Education, who is a committee member of the Princess Maha Chakri Award Foundation, spoke about the progress of the selection of outstanding candidates for the Award that executives from the Ministry of Education of 11 Southeast Asian nations, including Timor-Leste, had begun at a recent meeting and resolved that outstanding teachers from 11 Southeast Asian nations will be granted opportunities to be nominated for the Princess Maha Chakri Award of Thailand.
The presentation of the Award is supported by the Princess Maha Chakri Award Foundation, the Ministry of Education, the Teachers Council of Thailand and the Quality Learning Foundation , she said.
Ms Suthasri said that those teachers who are nominated must have outstanding achievements. They must have dedicated themselves to bringing changes to their students and to generating benefits to education and human development.
Ms Suthasri said she outlined the description of the Award to her counterparts from 10 countries (except Myanmar which is not able to attend the meeting) and they paid attention to the selection of their outstanding teachers.
Ms Suthasri said even though several Southeast Asian countries had their own teacher awards, their representatives at the meeting felt that the Princess Maha Chakri Award would be useful and provide opportunities for their outstanding teachers to be nominated.
Each of 11 Southeast Asian countries will be granted opportunities to be nominated for the Award. The awardees will receive the Award on October 2, 2015, she said.
Ms Suthasri said that each Southeast Asian country will have their own selection process. They will be responsible for selecting candidates in accordance with the criteria for award nomination.
She said the selection processes of each country would reflect their appreciation of the value of teachers that really made changes in their students.
She said several Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Timor- Leste and Vietnam, have already formed their own selection committee at both national and local levels.
She said she was particularly interested in the selection processes of Indonesia where there are currently about 2.9 million teachers nationwide. She said that an outstanding teacher of Indonesia who will be nominated to receive the Award must be approved by selection committees at local, provincial and national levels.
She said that she had information that Vietnam had about 1 million teachers and Timor-Leste had 10,250 teachers across the country. Each country is expected to send the names of their dedicated teachers for the Award by March next year.