Dr Uma Natarajan, Principal Researcher at The HEAD Foundation, was invited to deliver a public lecture at the National Library on 10 August 2017. The Library hosted a thematic speaker series on ASEAN 50 which is in commemoration of 50 years of ASEAN this year. The lecture was entitled, “Information and Communication Technologies in ASEAN Education.”

The ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2020 is focused on driving the region towards a digitally-enabled, integrated economy. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education offers opportunities for governments in ASEAN and other emerging nations to address key education challenges of quality, equity, and efficiency as well as develop their human capital. This is especially so for developing nations in the ASEAN region, which also have large youth populations, undergoing education reforms.  Dr Uma Natarajan shared policy recommendations for the region that will encourage and enable ICT development for education. Dr Natarajan’s address was based on the research and development work of the Foundation in the areas of ICT as well as her own research in Indonesia on ICT and teacher training.