G20 Education Working Group Meetings in India

Vinod Kakumanu
April 4, 2023, 2:32 p.m.

The first G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) meeting took place in Chennai on 1st and 2nd February 2023. The objective of this meeting was to explore ways of skilling, reskilling and upskilling for developing a lifelong learning ecosystem. 80 delegates from 30 countries and various international organizations participated in the meeting.

The working group deliberations took note of best practices being followed in member nations. The school education system of South Korea and European countries, and India’s own Diksha platform and other projects were shared in detail.

Among the many presentations made, international agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO and OECD participated actively. India’s premier institutions also presented their tested practices, e.g. the IITs at Madras, Hyderabad, Kharagpur and Ropar, IISc Bangalore, TISS Bombay, NIEPA, NCERT and National Skill Development Council.

Education is a life-long endeavour, and this requires availability of commensurate opportunities. The EdWG meeting discussed how to enable inclusive, equitable and lifelong learning opportunities for all, and all member countries expressed their willingness to work towards these goals.

India’s Chair of EdWG Sanjay Murthy called for collaboration with universities across the globe. India’s Secretary for the Ministry of School Education Sanjay Kumar emphasized the need to strengthen literacy at the school level and the use of Digital technology.

In the recently presented budget 2023-24, the Indian government has proposed to set up a ‘National Digital Library’ for children and adolescents. Also, three Centres of Excellence in AI in top institutions of India will be set in the coming years. This would help realize the vision of ‘Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India’.

The next EdWG meetings will be held from 15th to 17th March in Amritsar. There would be three supplementary meetings of the EdWG before the final meeting in June this year.