Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist September 2019 | Page 57

HAPPENINGS
INDIA-AFRICA
ADVANCING
COOPERATION IN
HIGHER EDUCATION
A
ddressing the India-Africa Higher Education and
Skills Development Summit, T S Trimurti, Secretary
(Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External
Affairs (MEA) said, “From the very beginning, South-South
Cooperation, particularly capacity building and higher
education, has been integral to India’s foreign policy. India
has a unique experience in nation-building given our large,
diverse and complex reality. Our approach to South-South
Cooperation has been therefore to share this experience and
knowledge in a spirit of solidarity with countries from the
South which are treading similar paths of socio-economic
development. In this quest, our bonds with Africa have
probably been the closest.”
He mentioned that Ministry of HRD’s programme ‘Study
in India’, which was launched last year, offers foreign students
of all backgrounds a unique learning environment anchored in
the spirit of friendship and cooperation. ‘Study in India’ is a
network of nearly 1000 universities and thousands of colleges.
The “Study in India’ is an innovative initiative to bring
together various scholarship and self-financing programmes
and to attract students from our partner countries, including
Africa, to come and experience the very best of academic
learning from the top institutions in India.
“India has also undertaken the establishment of institutions
and training centres which are scattered across the African
continent. During the last 4 years, 6 IT Centres were
established in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Lesotho,
Ghana, Namibia and Tanzania; a CGARD Technology
Centre in Madagascar; 7 Vocational Training Centres were
established in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Burkina Faso, The
Gambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt. A Technology Centre was also
established in Zimbabwe. Entrepreneurship Centres are being
set up. Several similar projects including a skills development
centre are being set up, asserted Secretary (ER).
Gifty Twum Ampofo, Deputy Minister for Education
in charge of Technical Vocational Education & Training,
Ghana while emphasizing on the reforms being undertaken in
Ghana in the technical and vocational education said Ghana
is ready to work with India and learn from India’s experience
especially in terms of capacity building.
Buti Kgwaridi Manamela, Deputy Minister for Higher
Education, South Africa stressed the need to conclude a
Mutual Recognition Agreement in terms of educational
qualifications between India and South Africa. He affirmed
that this had become essential as there were many South
Africans studying in India. He highlighted that South
Africa was in the process of developing a policy for
internationalizing its education system and he felt that India
had a major role to play.
Higher education in Africa lags behind global standards and
is afflicted by various challenges. Although reforms have been
introduced in recent years, the continent has a long way to go
due to limited funding and varying priorities across countries.
The India-Africa Higher Education and Skill Development
Summit organised by CII was intended at endorsing dialogue
between India and Africa in the domain of higher education
and skill development. The forum was successful in providing
an opportunity for Indian education providers to interact with
leaders from the African government, civil society and private
universities and discuss specific projects for collaboration in
the education sector. The summit also served as a platform
for African countries to showcase investment opportunities
in education and related sectors to potential investors.
Human resource development and capacity building are
important domains of engagement between the two regions.
Every year, thousands of young African individuals come
to India to pursue higher education. With the objective of
building meaningful partnerships and creating jobs, India
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 57