The Minister of State for Education Shri Subhas Sarkar participated in the G20 Research Ministers’ meeting today. The meeting was hosted in blended mode by Italy. G20 Education Ministers exchanged views on enhancing research collaborations and sharing digital space among G20 Countries for a strong, sustainable, resilient and inclusive recovery. MoS, Education, Smt. Annpurna Devi; MoS, Education, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Secretary Higher Education Shri Amit Khare and senior officials of the Ministry were also present during the meeting..
Representing India, Shri Subhas Sarkar reiterated the country’s commitment to promote research and to skill, reskill and upskill the youth and collaborating with other G-20 countries to achieve this objective. He said that India attaches great importance to work with G20 partners and find evidence-based solutions to common problems.
Speaking on National Education Policy, 2020, the Minister said India’s National Education Policy launched in 2020 under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, seeks to strengthen the research ecosystem of the country by establishing a National Research Foundation.
The Minister informed that India has introduced AI in the school curriculum from grade 6 onwards and also started engineering courses in regional languages to ensure that language does not pose a hurdle to higher learning and research. The Minister further informed that the Government of India supports diverse schemes like SPARC and GIAN to promote academic and research collaboration between India and other countries. Indian institutions are entering into twinning arrangements with foreign universities. We have set up an Academic Bank of Credit that will facilitate such arrangements, he added.
He highlighted that during the pandemic, Indian Higher Educational institutions worked on research projects and developed vaccines against Covid 19, low-cost ventilators and many other medical equipments.
The Minister stated that India emphasizes leveraging relevant technologies for maximum gain in the education sector, for which a National Education Technology Forum as an umbrella body is launched.
India acknowledges the concerted efforts being made by countries to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and build back a more resilient education system.
Regarding ensuring educational continuity during the pandemic, the Minister shared that India has promoted blended learning extensively. India launched PM eVidya programme under which we ensured continuity of education across the country with a mix of online, television and radio modes, through our initiatives SWAYAM, DIKSHA, SWAYAM PRABHA and many more.
The Minister reaffirmed the support of the Government of India to the collective efforts of the G-20 countries in building a resilient education system and said he look forward to work with partner countries to fulfill the shared priorities in this area.
Later, a Declaration of G20 Ministers on Leveraging Research, Higher Education and Digitalisation for a Strong, Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Recovery was adopted at the end of the meeting.