UNESCO, in cooperation with the Philippine Department of Education, Office of the Presidential Assistant for Education and the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines held the Asia-Pacific High Level Meeting on the Teaching of Philosophy on May 25-26, 2009. Held at the SEAMEO-INNOTECH compound, the ministerial meeting discussed the formulation of policies for philosophy teaching at national and regional levels.

The meeting also addressed key questions and recommendations relevant to the teaching of this discipline in Asia and the Pacific.It also aimed to build on the work of APPEND working project on teaching of philosophy.

In 2006, UNESCO published an intersectoral strategy for Philosophy that affirmed the critical role of Philosophy in grounding UNESCO’s aspirations for peace on the basis of the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. It then defined the role of Philosophy in terms of developing the intellectual tools to analyse and understand key concepts such as justice, dignity and freedom, by building capacities for independent thought and judgment, by enhancing the critical skills to understand and question the world’s challenges, and by fostering reflection on values and principles, philosophy - a “school of freedom.”

In 2007, the ground-breaking book entitled Philosophy: A School of Freedom was launched on the occasion of the UNESCO’s 34th General Conference in Paris which described the status and prospects of teaching philosophy in the world today. (You can download the book’s e-copy at http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php)

In July 2008, Assistant Director-General Pierre Sane asked the support of the Philippine National Commission to host a regional high level meeting on the Teaching of Philosophy in Asia and the Pacific in order to discuss the formulation of policies for philosophy teaching at national and regional levels, building on the efforts of many national governments and educational institutions across the region to teach critical thinking to young persons, and also upon the work of the Asia-Pacific Philosophy Education Network for Democracy (APPEND).

In August 2008, APPEND met in Seoul, South Korea on the occasion of the World Congress of Philosophy in order to help prepare for the Ministerial meeting.  APPEND and UNESCO Bangkok are focusing on strategies for teaching philosophy in the primary and secondary levels by analysis of the curriculum goals, and collecting examples of philosophical teaching materials in the region that can be used as starting points for philosophical reflection. All countries in the region were invited to join the meeting, and were asked to bring their own national policies and materials to the forum.