Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar at the 5th BRICS Education Ministers Meeting
BRICS ministers of education and assigned representatives adopted 'Beijing Declaration on Education' in a meeting today at Beijing. Ministers from BRICS countries discussed education reforms, approaches to promoting equity in education and fostering quality education, strengthening BRICS collaboration in the field of education, and exchange of students and scholars and teaching faculty among BRICS Member States in the meeting held on July 5 and July 6.
According to the declaration, members states - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)-Education 2030 which aims to "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all" that was set within The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
For ensuring coordinated and deeper cooperation among the member states, the meeting reiterated support for the BRICS Network University (NU) to collaborate in the fields of education, research and innovation. It also encouraged universities to participate in the BRICS University League.
With the Beijing declaration, BRICS member states also decided to increase cultural cooperation through language education and multilingualism to promote mutual understanding of the history and culture of BRICS member states and to undertake initiatives to promote professionalization of academics in higher education through the BRICS Network University as a focus of future education development.
The declaration emphasises to encourage more teachers and educational administrators to learn from experience of other countries in improving teacher quality and performance, and promoting the development of education through international exchanges.
BRICS meeting of education ministers also decided to strengthen cooperation in the field of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), share ideas and experiences in the development of vocational educators, and develop projects that are of common interests to BRICS Member States.
The importance of BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC), BRICS Network University as well as other BRICS initiatives were recognized by the meeting, and it encouraged the streamlining of mechanisms for their closer cooperation to ensure the alignment of their work.
The declaration also encouraged to expand the number of scholarship opportunities to students across BRICS Member States.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar represented India at the 5th BRICS education ministers meeting.
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