157 Teachers of 29 Nominated Schools from Six Countries Joined the Online Training Series Promoting Well-being in Southeast Asian Schools

By SEAMEO SEPS

Training Session 3: Understanding the School Food Environment and the Role of School Canteen in Making Healthy Food Choices, 18 August 2024

In a strategic move to address the pressing issue of malnutrition and promote well-being among schoolchildren, SEAMEO Regional Centre for Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Sustainability (SEAMEO SEPS) has partnered with the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN) on a Chevron-funded initiative entitled, “Promotion of Well-being in Schools in Southeast Asia”. During Phase 1 of the project, a total 157 educators including 29 school leaders and 128 teachers from 29 schools in 6 Southeast Asian countries joined a series of 7 interactive online training sessions during August-September 2024. The sessions provided valuable insights on how to tackle issues of undernutrition or obesity due to lifestyle changes and food insecurity by integrating One Health, Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), and sustainability principles into existing school lunch/feeding programmes.

The training sessions featured ten esteemed speakers from diverse fields, who shared their expert knowledge with the participants from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. In addition, two schools, namely SMK Wikrama Bogor (Indonesia) and Anuban Phuket School (Thailand) were invited to share their best practices in school canteen management.​

Following the project overview and orientation by Ms Duriya Amatavivat, Centre Director of SEAMEO SEPS, Dr Priyanut Dhamapiya, Senior Advisor from Sustainable Development and Sufficiency Economy Studies Center of NIDA and SEAMEO SEPS Governing Board Member, introduced participants to the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) and its application in education. The second and third sessions were led by Dr Luh Ade Wiradnyani and Dr Dwi Nastiti, Nutrition Specialists of SEAMEO RECFON who discussed balanced nutrition for schoolchildren’s health, healthy school canteens and school food environment policies that can positively impact student health, nutrition habits and academic performance.

Dr Melane Bacelonia Celeste, Principal I of the Cayetano Arellano Elementary School, the smallest among 53 schools in Caloocan city and one of the four nominated schools by the Philippines stated that “all knowledge shared by SEAMEO SEPS and speakers in the training series has a huge impact on my school plan and implementation that will surely promote a healthier habit within the learners, school personnel and community members”.

Mr Didi Suwardi, School Principal of SD Negeri Cikoneng, a school located in a remote tea plantation area in Bogor, Indonesia, commented that the school’s participation in the training series “will undoubtedly broaden our knowledge for future benefits”. He was honoured that his school had been selected to take part since this project “provides opportunities for collaboration and learning from other schools of other countries”.

Ms Tina Chum, Parent of Smet Primary School, located in the remote area of Kompong Chhang, Cambodia said that the training series had helped her “to reflect on the current practice of my school on what the school has done well and what are the gaps”. She added that she had “gained new lessons about balanced nutrition, SEP, and One Health model” which were new to her.

Guided by the knowledge and strategies shared throughout the webinar training series, the 29 participating schools enthusiastically embarked on the next stage of the project and the development of their individual School Proposal, aimed at improving their existing school lunch/feeding programmes. The selected school from each country will be awarded a grant of USD 3,000 to implement their proposed improvements in 2025. In addition to the grant, the selected schools will be officially recognised at the SEAMEO High Officials Meeting in Thailand, in November 2024.

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