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Over 160 participants including representatives of teacher unions, governments, civil society, youth, UN agencies, and academics from South Asia and Southeast Asia gathered to share lessons, explore innovative programs, and interventions to discuss how education systems can support teachers to deliver gender-responsive, socially responsible, and stigma-free curricula, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for children, adolescents, and young people.

From September 23rd-25th, 2025, Education International Asia-Pacific (EIAP) joined the Asia-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) - a leading organisation in advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights and justice of women, girls and young people -, the UNESCO in Bangkok and Office for UN Coordination for Asia and the Pacific and the UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia, the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia-Pacific Regional Office, as well as the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 Youth and Student Network and the Y-PEER Asia-Pacific Center, for a Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Transforming Teachers and Teaching for Adolescent Health, Well-Being and Gender Equality.

Teachers’ crucial role in securing the health and well-being of adolescents and young people

EIAP Regional Coordinator Undarmaa Batsukh delivered the welcome remarks on behalf of Education International, underscoring: “Investing in the health and well-being of adolescents and young people are essential to the future. However, students’ well-being will be as strong as teacher’s well-being is.”

She went on to stress that teachers are the key agents in this effort and “need to be well supported, respected, and valued as professionals and as a profession.”

Panel stresses the need for CSE teachers

A forum’s highlight was the all-teachers panel on “Evolving the professionalisation pathways for the CSE teacher: a multi-generational teacher dialogue,” featuring representatives from PGRI/Indonesia, NUTP/ Malaysia, NTTU/Thailand, ACT/Philippines and STU/Singapore. The panel, co-moderated by Ms. Batsukh and ARROW Deputy Executive Director Ms. Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, explored the roles that teachers play in shaping adolescent health and well-being.

As noted by teacher Parichart (NTTU/Thailand), “teachers are the frontline in protecting students from mental health challenges — but how can we fulfil this role when our own well-being is buried by non-teaching and non-student-care duties?”

The systemic and professional challenges teachers face was reaffirmed by Ms Susilowati (PGRI/Indonesia), acknowledging that “too often, well-being initiatives remain at the individual or school level without consistent system-wide backing, sustainable funding, or integration into national education strategies. Systemic support is A MUST!!”

The importance of ensuring that teachers are protected, valued and equipped with tools, skills and knowledge to lead this transformation, and through their collective agency and movement, was also highlighted. As Prof. C. Kwe (ACT/Philippines) explained: “CSE is premised on our rights to our body, identity, and freedom, precisely because these are withheld from us all over the world. We keep talking about this as a ‘system of injustice’, but will that term suffice? This global exploitation, extraction, and dominance that seek to make inequality permanent – resulting in the erosion of rights, devaluing of women, oppression of minorities – has a specific name: imperialism. And it is the teacher's duty to expose it so that students may reclaim the future.”

The panel concluded with a reminder to continue growing, standing tall and firm for gender equality even when challenges arise and to remember where you started, never losing hope. As teacher Kusmita (ISTU/Nepal) said “every young person deserves knowledge, dignity and equality.”

Call for stronger collaboration, continuous learning and solidarity to advance CSE in the region

Through informative and participatory plenaries, world cafés and skills-building sessions participants gained more inclusive, practical and promising innovations to apply in their national and local contexts.

Mike Thiruman (STU/Singapore) also underlined that “teacher-student relationship is the foundation of teaching and learning moving forward, which requires time and space to be nurtured and strengthened.”

The forum concluded with a call for stronger collaboration, continuous learning and solidarity to support teachers and education systems in advancing CSE in the region.