BRICS to boost education ties

The BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa – have pledged to develop an enabling framework to promote research cooperation and knowledge transfer among these countries in collaboration with other BRICS initiatives, a statement from the Ministry of Human Resource Development said.

After a meeting of education ministers of the five countries, a ‘New Delhi Declaration of Education’ was issued on Friday in which the nations decided to organise an annual conference of the BRICS Network University.

The countries will “share the best practices available in BRICS countries on collaboration in education, research and innovation through the BRICS Network University…organise an annual conference of the BRICS Network University in the country of the current BRICS Chair; and encourage more universities to participate in the BRICS University League to facilitate student mobility and collaborative research”.

Under the declaration, the nations also agreed to facilitate mobility of students and scholars, and encourage exchange of teaching faculty, especially those working in the areas relating to the six domains identified for cooperation within the BRICS Network University.

The other areas of cooperation include using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for improving access to education, enhancing the quality of teaching-learning process, teacher development, and strengthening educational planning and management.

The countries will also identify a nodal institution within each country and create an institutional network to share ICT policies, Open Educational Resources and other e-resources, including e-Libraries, among BRICS member countries, the statement added.