Current Affairs Date: 12 November 2023

⇒ The G20 Education Ministers’ meeting was held in Pune on June 22, 2023.

Chaired by:

The G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting (EMM) was chaired by Union Minister of Education, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and was attended by over 150 delegates including 14 ministers from G20 members and Guest countries.

• • The high-level participation from the G20 and Guest countries underlined the global focus on education as a transformative pathway to achieve the Presidency’s goal of “One Earth, One Family, One Future”.

The EdWG track aligned emphasised 4 priority areas, namely,

• • Ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy, especially 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. The Education Working Group also collaborates with employment and other Working groups to address issues like Skill Development, and school-to-work transition.

» These meetings were an opportunity to collectively agree on actions for accelerating achievement of the SDGs and foster synergies between the G20 nations towards the abovementioned priority areas.

» All the G20 members fully endorsed and adopted outcomes pertaining to the 4 priorities identified by the Indian Presidency for the Education Working Group, as all of them joined in consensus on all the technical issues and agreed to an “Outcome Document and Chair’s Summary”, which was adopted during the meeting.

» The G20 Ministers also unanimously adopted the G20 Education Working Group Report and the G20 Education Working Group Compendium on Education Policies and Programmes in G20 Countries.

The key takeaways of the G20 Educational Ministerial under India’s Presidency where all the G20 members agreed upon –

1. 1. Education’s critical role as an enabler of human dignity and empowerment globally.
   2. The need to work together for a resilient, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable future through education.
   3. The need to ensure that everyone irrespective of age, gender, socio-economic or cultural background or those who are facing physical, mental or other learning difficulties or special needs have access to quality, inclusive and equitable education, and training.
   4. Education is not only about academic learning but also about developing life, technical and vocational skills to make all learners future ready. They also underlined the need for lifelong learning.
   5. Recognized the important role of digital transformations, women-led development, green transition and education for sustainable development and lifestyles (LiFE) as accelerators that can advance the progress towards the achievement of the SDGs.
   6. The need for immediate and collective action to ensure that all learners acquire foundational learning, so that, by 2030, the percentage of children, particularly girls and children with disabilities, not able to read and understand a simple text and do simple maths is reduced substantially.
   7. The central role of all teachers and education staff all over the world in promoting education and the need to foster an environment including capacity building and exchange programmes that will enable teachers and staff to thrive in their profession.
   8. The importance of investment in supporting human capital development and encouraging collaborative solutions and innovations to promote quality teaching, learning and skilling as well as foster academic collaborations among educational institutions through joint programmes, dual degrees, as wells as student and faculty exchange programs.

During the discussions at the Ministerial Meeting:

All G20 members also reiterated their shared commitment to overcome the digital divide for all learners by addressing the barriers to technological infrastructure and working collectively to develop technology ecosystems and learning resources, including in local languages that are affordable and easily accessible.

Prior to the G20 Ministers’ Meeting, the Education Working Group held four meetings-

• • 1st Education Working Group Meeting, held at Chennai
  • 2nd Education Working Group Meeting held in Amritsar
  • 3rd Education Working Group Meeting held in Bhubaneswar
  • 4th Education Working Group Meeting held in Pune

4th G20 Education Working Group Meeting:

» The 4th G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) was held in Pune from June 20 – 21, 2023.

• • About 80 delegates from G20 Members, invited countries, and international organisations (IOs) attended the EdWG Meeting.

Day 1:

• • The 4th and final Education Working Group meeting (EdWG) commenced to delegates to finalize outcome documents to be presented at the Education Ministers’ meeting on June 22, 2023.
  • On the first day, the G20 delegates-initiated deliberations focusing on drafting the outcome document with interventions by G20 Troika. The International Organisations (IOs) UNICEF, OECD, and UNESCO presented the education working group report.
  • The first day of the meeting came to a close after engaging sessions on drafting the outcome document for the WG.

Day 2:

• • On the second day of the meeting, G20 India delegates & dignitaries continued deliberations on drafting the outcome document.
  • Wrapping up discussions for the day, delegates reconvened along with Ministers from G20 and invitee nations at the Education Ministers’ Meeting in Pune on June 22.