Conference on the Quality of Basic Education in Southeast Asia 11 to 12 October 2022 Quality education is critical for boosting human resources development, economic growth, and sustainable development, prompting many governments to invest heavily in education to promote their future competitiveness. Despite encouraging trends in public education investment and school completion in Southeast Asia, however, the learning outcomes gap remains significant. There are multidimensional challenges to improving the quality of basic education and ensuring that all students acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills. While there are some cases of countries in the region and broader developing Asia successfully tackling these challenges, there are many other accounts of failure. Efforts to improve learning outcomes experienced a significant setback during the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by ADBI, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, this conference featured new research papers on building basic education quality in Southeast Asia. ADB Chief Economist Albert Park and National Technology University’s Ng Pak Tee delivered keynote speeches. The Center for Global Development’s Justin Sandefur gave a special talk on education policy preferences in developing countries. See more about this ADBI event here. Program and Learning Materials 11 October 2022 Session / Activity Title Speaker(s) More information about this event here. Disclaimer The views expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Event Coordinator/s Daniel Suryadarma ADB Organizer/s ADBI Read Also The Quality of Basic Education in Southeast Asia ADBI Event Page Partner Organization/s ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute Topics Education Economics Evaluation