Building Equitable EdTech Ecosystems in Southeast Asia: Key highlights from a regional webinar on Bridging Policy and Practice
As education systems across Southeast Asia continue to embrace digital transformation, one question stands out: How can technology be designed and deployed to truly reach every learner? This was at the heart of EdTech Hub’s recent webinar, Building Equitable EdTech Ecosystems in Southeast Asia, held through the ASEAN-UK SAGE programme.
Bringing together Ministry of Education officials from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines alongside leading EdTech providers and funders, the session unpacked how governments, the private sector, and educators can work together to build inclusive, evidence-based digital learning systems. The discussion was built on insights from EdTech Hub’s new Landscape Analysis of Southeast Asia, along with a collection of summary briefs, which explores how regional partnerships can drive more equitable and sustainable use of technology in education.
From designing tools that empower teachers and safeguard data to aligning innovation with policy priorities, the conversation underscored that successful EdTech requires collaboration, evidence, and shared accountability.
Featured speakers
- Irsyad Zamjani, Director of the Center for Education Standards and Policy (PSKP), Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Indonesia
- Gerson Abesamis, Director of the Bureau of Learning and Delivery, Department of Education, Philippines
- Aniza binti Kamarulzaman, Director of the Educational Resources and Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia
- Steffina Yuli, Chief Business Officer, Kipin – Indonesia
- Travis Stewart, VP of Academy and Strategy, Vuihoc – Vietnam
- Kimberly Mae Garcia, Programme Manager for Let’s Read, the Asia Foundation – Philippines
Watch the webinar
Key takeaways
Here are some of the key takeaways and reflections from the discussion, including examples of good practice, audience questions, and a call to action for deeper tri-sectoral partnerships across the region.
1. How can policies support equitable and scalable EdTech?
Through the panel discussion, we learned that policies should focus on interoperability, capacity building, and empowering teachers to leverage EdTech in their classrooms. Ministries emphasised the importance of co-designing solutions with the private sector and educators to ensure tools are contextualised, easy-to-use, aligned with national priorities, and protect student data.
Example: In the Philippines, Director Gerson Abesamis (DepEd) described how the ministry collaborates with EdTech providers like Canva and Khan Academy. By receiving aggregate data on teacher and student usage, they can understand what works, without compromising privacy, and ensure interventions reach marginalised learners.
“Our biggest priority is to think about how we can offer this baseline of connectivity of internet, electricity and devices so that all schools have a chance at using and integrating technology in learning.” said Director Gerson Abesamis (DepEd). “We want to ensure that policies that support EdTech implementation are context aware.”
Key Takeaways: Governments should actively shape EdTech adoption from the start, rather than just adopting tools. Policies around interoperability, data protection, and teacher training are essential to scale solutions that are both inclusive and sustainable.
2. Who should be involved in designing and implementing EdTech?
Through the panel discussion, we learned that EdTech is most effective when it is tri-sectoral — involving government, private sector, and teachers/educators. Each has a distinct but complementary role, from ideation to implementation, with each stakeholder having an important role to play in ensuring that EdTech interventions are inclusive and equitable:
- Governments provide legitimacy, a macro-level perspective, direction on alignment of tools with national priorities, and the ability to facilitate discussions that can guide the development of policy frameworks.
- The private sector drives innovation, rapid piloting and prototyping, and technology development, guided by government policies, evidence, and aligned with national priorities.
- Educators ensure practical relevance, sustainability, and adoption of EdTech tools in classrooms to support and enhance teaching and learning.
Example:
Steffina Yuli (Kipin, Indonesia) highlighted that teachers’ engagement is critical for sustainability — when educators own and adapt solutions, they are more likely to integrate them effectively.
Travis Stewart (Vuihoc, Vietnam) added that scalable interventions require early agreement on problems to solve and rapid execution with room to iterate.
“Sometimes teachers and systems need time to familiarise themselves with digital devices; removing the layers of the complexities of technology and the internet has allowed the tablets to land much better inside the school.” mentioned Steffina Yuli.
Potential Takeaways: Successful EdTech requires structured collaboration across sectors. Governments and providers need to co-design solutions while centering teachers’ expertise and learners’ needs.
3. How can we measure what matters in EdTech?
Through the panel discussion, we learned that evaluating EdTech is more than measuring scores — it involves quantitative and qualitative data, including learner engagement, teacher time savings, and relevance to classroom practice. Metrics should capture social and relational dimensions of learning that are harder to quantify but crucial for equitable impact.
Example: We learned that in Malaysia, Madam Aniza shared how the Delima 3.0 platform leverages years of student data to personalise learning using AI. Single sign-on access across multiple platforms ensures ease of use, while anonymised data helps tailor content safely. Similarly, Travis Stewart (Vuihoc, Vietnam) described early experiments with data-driven assessment tools that allow schools to evaluate student strengths and weaknesses, saving teachers time, guiding targeted interventions, and emphasising careful data protection.
Potential Takeaways: Aligning on meaningful metrics allows governments and EdTech providers to ensure interventions are effective, equitable, and responsive to learners’ needs. Shared understanding of what to measure supports evidence-based scaling of tools across contexts.
4. How can we balance data sharing and protection in EdTech?
Audience reflections during the discussion highlighted a critical question: how can Ministries of Education and EdTech providers share data to tailor solutions to different learners while ensuring privacy and protection? Panellists agreed that meaningful collaboration requires a careful balance between leveraging insights and safeguarding sensitive information.
Example: In Malaysia, the Delima 3.0 platform demonstrates how anonymised and aggregated data can be used safely to inform curriculum design and support AI-driven personalisation without exposing individual student identities. Similarly, EdTech providers in pilot initiatives shared how responsible data sharing between schools and companies has helped teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses more efficiently, saving time on grading and enabling more targeted interventions—all while maintaining strict data protection protocols.
Potential Takeaways: Effective data sharing depends on trust, transparency, and strong governance frameworks. Aggregated insights can drive better decision-making and more adaptive learning tools, but protecting learner privacy must remain at the core of every EdTech partnership.
Call to action
Foster more long-term collaborative partnerships between the public sector (government), private sector and educators to engage with key questions around building and using evidence to co-design EdTech solutions that are safe, context-relevant and inclusive. This will be to align on shared goals, priorities, and frameworks, and leverage each sectors’ unique skills and resources (ie, for innovation and iteration from the private sector), and overcome barriers when driving sustainable, inclusive and equitable digital learning.
Read the full report
Opportunities for further engagement
Landscape Analysis Briefs
A collection of downloadable resources from the webinar Bridging Policy and Practice on Building Equitable EdTech Ecosystems in Southeast Asia.
EdTech and AI Topic Briefs
In December 2025, we will publish a series of topic briefs highlighting key insights on emerging themes around AI in Education in Southeast Asia.
Spotlight Sessions
From November 2025 to March 2026, we will host a series of spotlight sessions that will explore key EdTech topics in Southeast Asia — including strategic partnerships, governance and regulation, ethical AI applications, and more.
Acknowledgements
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this webinar, the landscape analysis, briefs and the development of this blog, namely Dr. Irsyad Zamjani (Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Indonesia), Director Gerson Abesamis (Department of Education, Philippines), Madame Aniza binti Kamarulzaman (Ministry of Education, Malaysia), Travis Stewart (Vuihoc), Steffina Yuli (Kipin), Kimberly Mae Garcia (Let’s Read, Asia Foundation), Isla Gilmore (FCDO), Jemellene Buyot (FCDO), and Verna Lalbeharie, Haani Mazari, Neema Jayasinghe, Aprillia Chrisani, Delanie Honda, Laila Friese, Jillian Makungu, Sophie Longley, Nimra Afzal, Sangay Thinley and Jazzlyne Gunawan from EdTech Hub.
This publication has been produced by EdTech Hub as part of the ASEAN-UK Supporting the Advancement of Girls’ Education (ASEAN-UK SAGE) programme. ASEAN-UK SAGE is an ASEAN cooperation programme funded by UK International Development from the UK Government. The programme aims to enhance foundational learning opportunities for all by breaking down barriers that hinder the educational achievements of girls and marginalised learners. The programme is in partnership with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Office, the British Council, the Australian Council for Educational Research, and EdTech Hub. This material has been funded by UK International Development from the UK Government; however, the views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies.
