RECSAM 50th Anniversary Coffee Table Book

8 took place as history was about to be aptly recorded. His Excellency, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, then the Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Education Malaysia of fi ciated the Opening of SEAMEO RECSAM on 31 October 1977. Tun Mahathir later went on to become the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia. RECSAM grew by leaps and bounds with support from regional countries and beyond. RECSAM, till today, has gathered unreserved appreciation by the support of Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA in providing the much-needed expertise and funding in the training of teachers and teacher- educators. During Fiscal Year 1985/1986, RECSAM for the fi rst time, conducted research based diploma courses for a period of six months. These courses were aimed to provide practical experience and understanding of research work, undertaken on a small-scale basis tailored to resources and viability. Use of computer-assisted lessons and mastering the technology in itself was initially slow-paced. It started to gain momentum in the mid-80s. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) fi rst helped to set up a computer Research-based diploma courses were conducted at RECSAM H.E. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, then the Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Education of Malaysia of fi ciated the Opening of SEAMEO RECSAM on 31 October 1977 lab at RECSAM. JICA provided all the computers for the lab and also sent a consultant on secondment to provide training. Dr. Yoshinori Yokoo served RECSAM as the IT consultant for two years from 1984 to 1986. In the 90s, all training courses were within a ten, eight or six-week duration and conducted three times in a fi scal year. RECSAM was granted autonomous status by the government of Malaysia only in October 1994. The Centre had successfully marketed its programmes and facilities throughout the Region and even beyond it. So much so, that countries fromSoutheast Asia and beyond namely,