On 6-7 October 2022, UNESCO-ICHEI participated in the 2022 Central Asian Symposium on ICT in Education (CASIE), organized by the UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office (UNESCO Almaty) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and introduced IIOE to participants from Central Asia and beyond through online mode.

As one of the most influential events on ICT in Education in Central Asia, CASIE 2022 gathered around 60 experts from UNESCO,OECD and other international organizations, policy makers and education stakeholders from Central Asian countries, Mongolia and Republic of Korea, as well as representatives from academic institutions and the private sector. The participants discussed policies and practices that address the urgent need in Central Asian countries for inclusive and quality education and skills development from a lifelong learning perspective. Representatives of the five Central Asian countries drafted and presented brief action plans for how ICT-enabled education can support the learning recovery and transformation of education.

During the session Teacher Capacity Building, Skills Development Pedagogical Innovation, Ms. Elena Klepacheva, Senior Lecturer at Republican Institute for Professional Development of Pedagogical Workers under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, Dr. Gunay Karli, Chief Scientific Officer at IT-company "MERSYS", Ms. Li Fan, Assistant Director Chief of Asia-Pacific Programme Office at UNESCO-ICHEI and Ms. Tatyana Murovana, Programme Specialist at UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, shared relevant practices in empowering teachers with digital skills from the perspectives of the government education sector, the private sector and UNESCO. Specifically, Ms. Li fan gave a presentation on Digital Transformation of Higher Education: Engagement and impact of International Institute of Online Education. By looking at the need for digital transformation of higher education, she pointed out the major challenges facing Central Asian countries in the efforts towards transforming their higher education systems, which requires a more systematic and holistic approach. Afterwards, Ms. Li Fan gave a detailed introduction of IIOE, including its hardware and software support, partnership network, etc., and took stock of a series of collaborations between UNESCO-ICHEI and Central Asian countries within the framework of IIOE. She also revealed that UNESCO-ICHEI plans to establish an IIOE National Center in Uzbekistan which is supposed to serve as a think tank and capacity building hub to facilitate the digital transformation of higher education at country level. Finally, Ms. Li Fan made an announcement about the upcoming regional event focusing on digital transformation of higher education in Central Asia and beyond through digital technology, which will take place in late November and will be co-organized with UNESCO Almaty and other partner entities of UNESCO-ICHEI.

Since 2011, UNESCO has organized the Central Asia Symposium on ICT in Education (CASIE) as a sub-regional platform for facilitating high-level discussions on the use of ICT in education to address challenges and opportunities in Central Asia. It has allowed Member States and education stakeholders to collectively deliberate on how to integrate technologies into their national education systems to achieve the ambitious goals of the Education 2030 Agenda. Since its launch, the Symposium has covered themes such as ICT practices for lifelong learning, empowering teachers and teacher innovation, as well as skills development and TVET.