International collaboration in New Education Policy (NEP) may change the educational paradigm of the country
In recent years, international collaborations in education have been on the rise, and so is the case with India. Such collaborations allow teachers, students, administrators, institutions and universities to compare, exchange and collaborate on a range of emerging educational, scientific, technological and teaching issues and methodologies to create an effective and contemporary system of education to cater to the newer needs of the youth. Such collaborations don’t just open up the window to the world-class education system, they also offer a better international, social, cultural, economic and geopolitical understanding to the students, besides generating a sense of empathy and new skill sets in the youth.
It is encouraging that the Government of India has made a number of strides in the recent past. On the one hand, it brought into force the New Education Policy (NEP) to change the educational paradigm of the country, it goes on to collaborate with top institutions and universities of the world to make the educational system competitive enough, on the other. To promote the internationalisation of Indian education, NEP focuses on facilitating research, teaching collaborations and faculty & student exchange programmes with high-quality foreign Institutions. It does encourage high-performing Indian universities to set up campuses in other countries, along with facilitating universities from the top 100 universities in the world to operate in India.
In the process, India has identified ‘Skill Bench-marking’ as a high-priority area in its foreign engagements. It has either done some kind of collaboration or is in the process of inking it with UAE, Australia, Singapore, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, the US, UAE and the United Kingdom.
Only recently, Union Education Minister held a meeting with the US Secretary of Commerce with a focus on forging stronger linkages in the skilling sector. The collaborations aim to strengthen institutional mechanisms for making the Indian skill ecosystem more vibrant as well as for building the workforce of the future with a focus on 3S-Skilling, Start-ups and SMEs. Just a couple of days earlier, India and Australia also signed an ambitious agreement, which will help ease the mobility of students and professionals between the two countries. They also agreed to establish a joint task force for mutual recognition of qualifications, which covers both education and skill qualifications of the two countries and will help facilitate two-way mobility of young people for education and employment purposes.
Earlier, known for its best school education, Finland evinced interest to collaborate with India on the knowledge front. India can benefit from Finland’s best practices in ECCE, teacher training, and digital education among others. Finnish Universities may also collaborate with Indian Higher Education Institutions through joint, dual degrees and twinning programs.
Moreover, research also suggests that those having had their education from international universities are better able to adapt to changes at the fast face and adapt to the changing realities and circumstances. They find more similarities than differences with students from other parts of the world, hence working effortlessly with them. They are also better prepared to discover new career avenues and opportunities than their counterparts receiving education domestically. International collaboration can be extremely rewarding for schools, especially in less developed and developing countries. India still faces a shortage of quality teachers and teaching methodologies to rise to the occasion. Here, such relations and collaborations may prove highly fruitful, as they allow teachers to learn newer things by questioning their incumbent process, practices and notions, reinvent themselves and adopt new strategies.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
