The Ministry of Education, Government of India, has successfully concluded the 4th and final meeting of the G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) in Pune. The 2-day summit, which was attended by about 80 delegates from G20 Members, invited countries, and international organisations (IOs), proved to be an important milestone for global education collaboration.
On the first day, the meeting was chaired by K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary Higher Education, with Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, and Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship serving as alternate chairs. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Chief Coordinator, India's G20 Presidency, Government of India, also attended.
K. Sanjay Murthy extended his appreciation to the G20 delegates for their valuable contributions to the outcome documents and their active participation throughout the process. He emphasized the significance of their efforts and highlighted the forthcoming Ministerial meeting on June 22, 2023.
During this meeting, the ministers will officially accept the outcome documents, signifying the culmination of extensive deliberations conducted within the education working group track over the past several months. Throughout the 4th EdWG, G20 delegates commended the sustained efforts of the Indian G20 presidency in developing the EdWG report and Compendium. These outcome documents will serve as a comprehensive roadmap for the international community, guiding coordinated actions to ensure inclusive and high-quality education for all learners.
Aligned with the Indian G20 Presidency’s theme of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" or "One Earth, One Family, One Future," the EdWG track focused on finding inclusive solutions and collective actions to address the diverse global challenges.
The meetings underscored four priority areas: Ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy, particularly in the context of blended learning; Making tech-enabled learning more inclusive, qualitative, and collaborative; Building capacities and promoting lifelong learning in the context of the future of work; and Strengthening research and fostering innovation through enhanced collaboration and partnerships. These meetings presented an opportunity to collectively agree on actions to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and foster synergies between the G20 nations within these priority areas.
Preceding the 4th EdWG meeting was a Seminar on 'Ensuring Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) especially in the context of blended learning.' The participants included several speakers from the government, industry, academia, and IOs who engaged in insightful discussions on topics related to FLN, such as teaching and learning approaches, pedagogy, the role of caregivers, and capacity building and training of teachers in the context of multilingualism.
In conjunction with the meeting, a multimedia exhibition is currently taking place at Savitribai Phule Pune University from June 17th to June 22nd, 2023. With over 125,000 attendees and more than 80 exhibitors, the exhibition provides a unique platform to showcase FLN-related initiatives. Notable participants from 28 States/UTs include organizations such as NCERT, IKS (Indian Knowledge System), Microsoft, Nipun Bharat initiative, Indonesia, UNICEF, UNESCO, and many others.
