Pasay, Philippines - Education leaders, partners, and stakeholders from across Southeast Asia gathered in Manila not only to mark  the launch of the 2024 main regional report, but to renew a shared commitment:  that every child deserves the chance to build strong foundations in reading and mathematics. 

Organized by SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat, led by the SEAMEO Secretariat and UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO), with the generous support of the UK Government through the ASEAN-UK SAGE programme, and hosted by the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd), the SEA-PLM 2024 Main Regional Report Launch brought together more than a hundred participants from SEA-PLM participating countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Viet Nam), as well as honorary countries Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and Timor-Leste, alongside a wide wide community of regional and international partners.

The event marked the culmination of SEA-PLM’s second cycle and created space for a conversation that felt both technical and deeply human. Behind every chart and trendline, participants were reminded of real classrooms, real teachers, and real children navigating learning in a post-pandemic and rapidly changing world.

In his opening remarks, Mr Kamal Mamat Head, Education, Youth and Sports Division, ASEAN Secretariat underscored that SEA-PLM’s value lies not only in measurement, but in meaning, particularly as the region shapes its future education priorities. His words resonated strongly with the audience, “each data point represents an individual child with potential and dreams”.

H.E Borat Oung - Secretary of State and Head of the Cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport Cambodia. Ms Linda Jönsson - Education Specialist UNICEF EAPRO gave opening remarks on the workshop

That same spirit carried through the launch ceremony itself. Delegates and partners assembled a puzzle board to symbolize how progress in foundational learning is built, piece by piece, country by country, through collective responsibility. The visual reinforced the idea that improving education opportunities and shaping students’ futures in Southeast Asia requires sustained collaboration across systems and borders. This aligns with the remarks of His Excellency Secretary Sonny Angara where he noted “the spirit of regional cooperation, noting that ASEAN education has always been about “community rather than competition.”

Acknowledgement and appreciation to the United Kingdom and Republic of Korea that represented by Ms Isla Gilmore (UK Mission to ASEAN) and His Excellency Mr Lee Jang-keun (Ambassador to the Republic of Korea Mission to ASEAN)

Support from partners was reaffirmed throughout the launch. The ASEAN Secretariat recognised the role of the Republic of Korea through the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF) and the United Kingdom through the ASEAN-UK SAGE Programme in making the work possible. In particular, the Republic of Korea reiterated its commitment through “continued funding and technical support” for SEA-PLM 2029, alongside partner institutes helping translate evidence into policy and practice. The UK Mission to ASEAN also framed the 2024 Regional Report as a “call to action” urging stronger commitment to evidence-based policy-making and keeping foundational learning at the centre of national development.

SEA-PLM 2024 Tracks Learning Recovery and Equity Gaps in Southeast Asia

A major highlight of the day was the presentation of SEA-PLM 2024 results by the SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat. The session explained how student proficiency is captured through SEA-PLM proficiency bands, and how the distribution of learners across these bands informs both policy and classroom practice.  Importantly, SEA-PLM announced that all six participating countries now have reliable, internationally recognised data points for SDG 4.1.1b—minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics. Using this benchmark, the regional picture shows both progress and urgency: 53% of Grade 5 learners meet minimum proficiency in reading, and 68% meet minimum proficiency in mathematics, compared with 46% in reading and 56% in mathematics in 2019.

Mr Alejandro Sinon Ibanez, Mr Antoine Marivin, and Ms Linda Johnsson from the SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat presented the 2024 regional results and key policy insights.

Between 2019 and 2024, regional trends present a mixed story. While mathematics outcomes improved, reading performance remained largely unchanged. Gains were most visible among higher-performing students, while many learners remain clustered in the lower bands, underscoring the need to strengthen basic competencies and accelerate progress for those furthest behind.

From this evidence, three clear implications emerged:

• target investment where disadvantage is concentrated; 
• strengthen system resilience in the face of uncertainty; and 
• accelerate progress for learners at low proficiency levels, including out-of-school children.

Participants, partners, and education stakeholders during SEA-PLM 2024 Main Regional Launch.

Equity remains the unfinished agenda

SEA-PLM 2024 findings reaffirm that equity challenges persist across gender, socio-economic status, access to early childhood education, and language spoken at home. The learning gap between students from the lowest and highest socio-economic quartiles reaches up to two years, while children who attended early childhood education outperform their peers by as much as one year of learning by the end of primary school.

Participants stressed that even when average performance improves, disparities can remain—or widen—if equity is not addressed explicitly. As a result, the message repeated throughout the day was not simply to raise scores, but to raise the floor and close the gaps through inclusive and gender-responsive systems, adequate resourcing for disadvantaged learners, and stronger alignment between language-of-instruction policies and learners’ home languages.

More than an assessment

Throughout the launch, SEA-PLM was repeatedly framed not as a one-off study, but as a shared regional mechanism for learning and reform. Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, Director,  SEAMEO Secretariat described SEA-PLM in simple, powerful terms: “SEA-PLM is more than an assessment, it is a regional public good.” In closing the ceremonial launch, she emphasised that the day was about more than unveiling evidence. It was a reaffirmation that every child deserves essential skills—and that the findings demand bold leadership, strategic investment, and consistent use of evidence

She also announced that preparations are underway for the SEA-PLM Multi-Annual Strategic Plan 2026–2031, including the third assessment cycle, SEA-PLM 2029, aligned with SDG 2030 targets. As she reminded participants, “Evidence must lead to action, and action must lead to meaningful change.”

Datuk Dr Habibah from SEAMEO Secretariat, and Ms Mitsue Uemura from UNICEF East Asia and Pacific gave an opening and closing remarks

From Evidence to Practice

To move beyond headlines and into implementation, the launch featured three thematic breakout sessions focusing on: School leadership and teaching and learning, Gender, equity, and inclusion, and Scaling up foundational learning,

These sessions linked SEA-PLM evidence with promising initiatives and practical examples of what works in real education systems.

The day concluded with a strong sense of forward momentum. The SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat shared plans to develop a set of regional recommendations based on SEA-PLM 2024, feeding into a future regional declaration on foundational learning and the ASEAN Education Sector Workplan. Further analyses are also planned, including reporting on the writing domain in early 2026 and additional secondary analyses with partners and researchers.

In her closing remarks, Ms Mitsue Uemura (UNICEF EAPRO) returned to a metaphor echoed throughout the day: SEA-PLM results as a “compass.” A compass, she noted, only matters if it is used collectively—by coordinating efforts, sharing resources, and regularly checking progress. 

She closed with an aspirational vision of Southeast Asia becoming the fastest-improving region globally in ensuring every child learns, anchored in the words of a learner shared earlier that day: “Let’s keep learning. Let’s keep moving.”

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SEA-PLM is supported by the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF) and the UK Mission to ASEAN under the ASEAN-UK Supporting the Advancement of Girls’s Education (ASEAN-UK SAGE) Programme. Its content is the sole responsibility of the SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat and does not necessarily reflect the views of AKCF and ASEAN-UK SAGE.”