On July 6, 2021, Minister of State (MoS) Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Ministry of Education (MoE), and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeiTy) virtually chaired 8th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Education Ministers 2021 meeting.
- Education Ministers from the five BRICS member states attended the meeting along with senior officials.
- The ministers signed a joint declaration to strengthen their academic and research collaboration in higher education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
Themes of Meeting:
i.Leveraging digital and technological solutions for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education.
ii.Enhancing research and academic collaboration.
Decisions taken during Meeting:
i.The ministers agreed on facilitating the mobility of students and faculty among BRICS partner states.
ii.They also encouraged joint and dual degrees between higher education institutions in BRICS countries.
iii.The Education Ministers recognized TVET as a priority area for BRICS.
Points to be noted:
i.The MoS highlighted India’s efforts to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on Education which include PM eVidya, SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) platform, SWAYAM PRABHA TV Channels, DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing Portal), and Virtual labs .
ii.This meet was held as part of the 13th BRICS Summit which will be held under the chairship of India in 2021. It will be the third time that India will host the BRICS Summit after 2012 and 2016.
Other Meetings:
On July 2, 2021 a meeting of Senior BRICS Officers on Education was chaired by Amit Khare, Secretary, MoE and attended by Dhirendra Pal Singh, Chairman UGC (University Grants Commission), Anil Sahsrabuddhe Chairman AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and Prof Subhasis Chaudhary, Director IIT (Indian Institute of Technology)-Bombay.
Recent Related News:
India hosted the two-day virtual event of BRICS countries on “Misuse of Internet for Terrorist Purposes and Role of Digital Forensics in Terrorist Investigations”. It was organised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
About BRICS:
Establishment– 2006
2021 Chair– India
Theme for India’s Chairship– ‘BRICS @ 15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’
