RECSAM 50th Anniversary Coffee Table Book

14 signed by the US Government, the Government of Malaysia and SEAMEO. The plan provided for the construction of an administrative/teaching block, two science laboratory blocks with technical workshop facilities and an information/ Learning Resource Centre (LRC), a conference hall, and other necessary units, including furnishing and equipment at an estimated cost of US$1.2 million. The project began in May 1975 and was completed in 1977. Another historical date in the annals of RECSAM’s records was 31 October 1977, when the building was of fi cially declared open by The Honorable, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohammed, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia who was then the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education. The event marked the realisation of the aspirations of the pioneer educators whose vision was to uplift the quality of education, speci fi cally in science and mathematics in the region. RECSAM passed through a rigorous pace of development in its fi rst ten years of operation. Besides equipping the Centre with teaching facilities and resource materials, RECSAM took pride in having conducted a record number of 136 courses for a total of 1876 key personnel from the Southeast Asian countries in various areas of science and mathematics curriculum for national developmental goals. In terms of training programmes, the decade saw the launching of the Centre’s two vital projects, namely the Southeast Asia Science and Mathematics Experiment (SEASAME) for primary schools and the Science and Mathematics Concepts Learning of Southeast Asian Children (CONCEPT). These two projects were regional cooperative ventures geared towards the development of a systems-