GCC@USM Director Welcoming Speech
Associate Professor Dr. Rohizani Binti Yaakub
Director of Global Citizenship Cooperation Centre @ Universiti Sains Malaysia
Assalamualaikum and a very good morning/afternoon to all.
Mr. Lim Hyun Mook, Director, Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding, Seoul Korea & Professor Dr. Hairul Nizam Ismail, Dean School of Educational Studies
Let me begin my speech with a story. A very heartwarming story.
I began my “relationship” with Citizenship Education in the year 2003 when our former Dean nominated me as a delegate representing USM to a three weeks study trip to the Center of Civic Education in Calabasas California. Apart from attending lectures, we were given the opportunity to visit the Capitol and meet with the house representatives and learned about the government. During that period, we were trained to be trainers for Project Citizen, a flagship of the center. As a certified trainer, Project Citizen has kept me busy conducting training for teachers in Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, and of course all over Malaysia under the Malaysian Citizenship Initiative, based in USM.
In 2006, I was invited by the Center for Civic Education USA to learn more about civic education in a one-month course conducted at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. It was a tough program that sometimes I felt like I was doing my second phd. We had to read a lot of books and do a lot of discussion and critical thinking. Nonetheless, it further enhanced my knowledge and understanding about Civic and Citizenship Education.
My introduction to Global Citizenship Education happened, during my stay in London when I was on sabbatical in 2006. I enrolled in a one-day workshop organized by OXFAM. It was not intentional as I only walked-in into their office to learn more about OXFAM activities.
Fast forward, me and my team had conducted a research on Civic and Citizenship Education and it has brought us to Bangkok in 2009 for a seminar organized by UNESCO. That was where my colleague Norlida and I met Ms Jeongmin Eom and Anna from APCEIU who happened to be there as well. That was the first time we heard about the Asia Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding. We learned about activities and opportunities that APCEIU has to offer.
Fast forward, I applied and was selected to attend the Asia Pacific Training Workshop in APCEIU in September 2009. Our working relationship was further strengthened when USM and APCEIU signed an MOU in 2010. Since then, APCEIU has always offers various opportunities for me and our academics to explore EIU.
Well… the rest are history and today, our relationship is reaffirmed with this collaboration. For the second time, USM and APCEIU have signed the MOU to establish a Global Citizenship Education Co-operation Centre at USM.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of USM, the associates and staffs, I would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to APCEIU for trusting us at USM to run a Global Citizenship Center @ USM which, in future, will be a hub for promoting GCED based on the contexts and needs of Southeast Asian countries. The establishment of GCC in the region is timely as it is in line with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), which recommends GCED to be incorporated in its ‘Seven Priority Agenda 2015-2035’.
GCED has rapidly emerged as a priority education agenda in Southeast Asian countries. The need for GCED has been further heightened due to widespread discrimination, stigma and disinfodemic since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GCC@USM has identified nine main activities that we will be actively running. It includes Thinking GCED, Talking GCED, Sharing GCED, Working GCED, Cataloguing GCED, Adopting GCED, Spreading GCED, Researching GCED, and Celebrating GCED.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have been very busy these past few weeks with meetings and discussions on how to determine GCC@USM’s direction for the next five years. It may sound a long time but believe me, when we are busy doing things that we love and have passion in, time will fly unnoticed!
We have proven this in the last several weeks, we have successfully conducted a series of workshops including a refresher course for us to refresh and realign our thinking and expertise to fit into the GCED framework. Apart from that, we have conducted three online workshops for preservice teachers and one in-service teacher training workshop in a nearby hotel. We managed to developed learning videos on GCED, which will be uploaded to the website soon.
Ladies and gentlemen,
May I take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment that GCC@USM will work hard in happy mood to lead in the practice and spread of GCED locally and regionally by focusing on expanding customized teacher training, improving teacher professionalism, and stimulating GCED cooperation. We strongly believe that we could achieve anything when we work together. So let us join our hands together, and make this GCC@USM a success. I believe we have many school headmasters with us here today and we welcome any suggestions and collaborations.
Finally, once again, thank you APCEIU. Thank you everyone.