Meet to boost education cooperation between India and South Africa

Tribune News Service

GS Paul

Amritsar, March 16

South African delegates at the G20 summit in India believe that the meet on education is an apt platform to strengthen the academic and skill development partnerships and bilateral education cooperation between the two nations.

Reineth Mgiba, Director of the Department of Higher Education and Training in Pretoria, who is participating in the second edition of the G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) with two of his colleagues, said South Africa and India, being part of the BRICS group, assist each other for overall development.

Foundational learning priority

• Having robust foundational learning and numeracy skills coupled with efficient vocational training plan is vital for future global learning.
• This was identified as a top priority on the penultimate day of the second Education Working Group (EdWG) meet
• The meeting was chaired by K Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, (Higher Education) with Sanjay Kumar, Secretary (School Education) & Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, (Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

He said that as far as education is concerned, the education scenario in South Africa is more or less similar to India, though there could be a difference in scale and magnitude.

“Collaboration and joint research among top universities of the two nations could be a win-win situation for both. We are looking forward to exploring more and more faculty and student exchange, student enrolments, faculty development and scholarship programmes to uplift the level of education,” he added.

Win-win situation

Collaboration and joint research among top universities of the two nations could be a win-win situation for both. —Reineth Mgiba, Director, Pretoria higher education and training

India is among the top five destinations for African students who aspire to pursue higher education overseas. Indian universities have also been promoting and marketing popular bachelor’s degrees in the subjects of commerce, engineering, information and communication technology, health sciences, nursing and law, among others, globally.

Spanning several decades, India’s relations with South Africa have emotional bonding too. It is in the African nation that Mahatma Gandhi started his political career, and during apartheid,