BRICS education agenda: Childhood care, courses on par with market demand

The BRICS nations have agreed on a joint agenda for childhood care, education, and vocational training at their 18th summit in New Delhi. The New Delhi Declaration emphasizes the importance of sharing best practices, collaborating on early childhood care and education, ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy skills, and promoting mutual recognition of qualifications.

It also highlights the need for digital literacy, safe and ethical use of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence in education, and institutional partnerships.

The Declaration underscores the significance of the BRICS Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Cooperation Alliance (BRICS-TCA) in fostering a multilateral platform for project cooperation, information exchange, resource sharing, and advancing joint TVET development among member states. It looks forward to the BRICS-TCA Biennial Progress Report and the BRICS-TCA Compendium of Sustainable Skill Initiatives.

The nations reaffirm their commitment to strengthening skill development systems, digital literacy, and preparing the workforce to meet evolving market demands and sustainable development goals. They support ongoing cooperation through existing education mechanisms, including the BRICS Network University, and welcome India's initiative to include traditional and indigenous knowledge systems in the BRICS Guiding Principles.

The Declaration encourages the Network University to consider these knowledge systems as an additional International Thematic Group and advocates for collaborative efforts to improve institutional governance, enhance education quality and accessibility, and promote exchange and scholarship programs in various fields, including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, as well as TVET-industry linkages to foster innovation and create more job opportunities.