Re-consideration of Regional Networking Programme for Educational Development in Asia and the Pacific : An Analysis and Evaluation of APEID (the Asia and the Programme of Educational Innovation for Development)

The Twentieth century saw various forms of educational programme for development at regional and international levels. Among them, APEID(The Asia and the Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development) one of the UNESCO's regional programmes, has been highly regarded as ‘a model' for TCDC (Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries) or innovative networking for development. Nonetheless, the fact that most of the writings on the regional programme was not quantitative evaluation but qualitative review or essays makes it difficult to grasp whole the development process of APEID. In this paper, the present author will pigeonhole data on the development of the programme for more than twenty years, and show some trends of educational networking in the region, and then attempt to clarify some points that need to be examined for further development of the programme. Observing the chronological development of APEID activities, one can notice that the programme was at the height of its prosperity in the 1970s and 1980s, then started to loose its influence in the 1990s. However, examining each period from such viewpoints as commitments by organizing seminars/workshops, hosting study visits, sending consultants, one can also understand that the ways of participation of member states of the regional programme indicate some unique features in the programme. Among the various contributors, especially Thailand and Japan are the most active member states that devoted themselves constantly and consistently to the development of the programme by organizing and hosting various activities under the programme. Also, one can look upon APEID as an initiatial form of educational programme in the region that later emerged as South-South co-operation or tripartite co-operation. Focusing upon the development of the regional network of APEID in the 1990s will bring out a trend that cannot be found in the 1970s and 1980s; the number of associated centers increases as before, on the other hand, the number of seminars or workshops under the programme decreases. The present author considers the tendency in the period as signs of loosing dynamism that was one of the typical features of the regional programme. One of the factors that caused the trend can be attributed to a discrepancy between initial ideas or philosophies of APEID and its working mechanism. Some ideas of APEID that supported the initial stage of its development may lead us to an understanding that APEID is innately a ‘rhizomic' network. However, in the process of development, it has become structurally a huge hierarchical mechanism that regard nation states as central agencies of the programme and that has an inconsistent nature to the ‘rhizomic' networking. Under such a hierarchical mechanism, it is difficult for the stakeholders of the programme to make an active participation or commitments and to create a dynamic communication. Therefore it is imperative for further development of the networking to re-create a pluralistic mechanism in which various agencies can enjoy various opportunities of voluntary participation as well as self-reflectiveness in the networking programme