PM Modi’s visionary leadership brought world recognition to India’s education ecosystem: Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi [India]: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed his deepest gratitude and sincere thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his visionary leadership of the G20.

This inclusive vision has been realized through India’s leadership in the successful inclusion of the African Union (AU) into this coveted group, truly democratizing the G20 and lending strength to the voice of the Global South.

Pradhan lauded the visionary leadership and clear narrative provided by PM Modi to take forward the global education agenda under the G20 architecture.

He said this has resulted in world recognition for India’s education and skill ecosystem and endorsement for the major principles and priorities of our National Education Policy 2020.

In a statement to the media, Pradhan said India’s presidency is rightly being applauded for changing the global order based on consensus, collaboration and cooperation.

Speaking about educational priorities under G20, Pradhan said that the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, by prioritizing deliberations on critical areas like Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), Tech-enabled learning, Building Capacities for Lifelong learning and the Future of Work and Strengthening Research and innovation through Collaboration, has renewed the global resolve to work for an equitable and sustainable future through education and has provided a roadmap for the same.

The Minister further added that the Leaders’ Declaration resonates with the education working group priorities on the three identified accelerators of Digital Transformation, Just Green Transition, and Women-led Development.

This is reflected in the commitment to enhancing women’s meaningful participation as decision-makers, including in quality education; focusing on developing Digital Public Infrastructure including in education,  and promoting LiFE.

Pradhan also thanked the Prime Minister for emphasizing in the Leaders’ Declaration,  the need to support accessible, affordable, safe and nutritious food and healthy diets in school meal programmes, which is the objective of our PM POSHAN programme.

Speaking on the follow-up action being taken further to the G20 Education Working Group meetings, Pradhan informed that research collaborations are being actively done with several countries.

This is being reflected through our joint initiatives such as the signing of  MoUs between the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Council), and the Association of American Universities (AAU) to establish the India-U.S. Global Challenges Institute, which will bring together leading research and higher education institutions from across our two nations,  to advance new frontiers in science and technology, spanning collaboration in sustainable energy and agriculture, health and pandemic preparedness, semiconductor technology and manufacturing, advanced materials, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, and quantum science.

We are also witnessing many new emerging multi-institutional collaborative education partnerships, such as those between New York University-Tandon and IIT Kanpur Advanced Research Center, the Joint Research Centers of the State University of New York at Buffalo and IIT Delhi, Kanpur, Jodhpur, and BHU, in the areas of critical and emerging technologies, IIT Bombay joining the Chicago Quantum Exchange and the start of the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) Similarly we are exploring university level collaborations with other countries like Australia, UAE, Taiwan, UK  and others in many critical areas, he said.

In the skill sector, one of the key focus areas is the sanitization of transnational standards with member countries by creating an International Reference Classification of occupations based on skill and qualification requirements, leading to better cross-country comparability and mutual recognition of qualifications, he added.

This commitment included a pledge to establish well-managed, regular, and skills-based migration pathways that mutually benefit origin and destination countries.

To support these efforts, they focused on identifying global skill gaps and prioritizing policies aimed at addressing them, which involved strengthening national statistical data and expanding the International Labor Organization (ILO) and OECD Skills for Jobs Databases to encompass G20 nations.

ILO and OECD proposed 12 basic and 14 extended indicators for monitoring and measuring global skill gaps. These indicators have been agreed to by the G20 countries. Going forward, ILO & OECD would be responsible for implementing the intervention to monitor and measure global skill gaps in G20 countries basis the agreed indicators.

Pradhan shed light on how India’s G20 presidency gave our education priorities, contextual realities and national initiatives, an acceleration and a platform for demonstrating long-term systemic policy vision.

By fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovative approaches, India and its G20 partners created impetus for furthering coordinated action on futuristic education and training systems, he added.