India and Finland recently held comprehensive discussions on enhancing their existing ties in the education sector. The Education Ministry of the two sides held a dialogue on respective policies in School Education, Vocational Education and Higher Education. The ministries also explored opportunities of creating more concrete proposals and action plans in order to promote a richer collaboration.
An official release by Ministry of Education stated, "The two sides showed special interest in collaborating on capacity building of teachers, STEM educators and leveraging digital technology in various areas of education. Research collaborations were another area of common interest, especially in areas of new and emerging technologies, AI, Quantum Tech, sustainability, climate change. The Indian side also briefed upon new regulations brought in for internationalization of higher education under NEP 2020."
India and Finland have ongoing collaboration in school and higher education and skilling. The two countries signed a Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement in December 2022, under which discussions are ongoing for mobility of trained manpower from India.
A joint statement was released on areas of mutual interest such as early to senior secondary education, higher education, student mobility and skill development.
In the field of school education, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has signed a 5-year MoU with the Finnish National Agency of Education (EDUFI) in March 2022 with the objective to promote educational cooperation through sharing of information and content in areas of mutual interest.
In higher education the two sides have active collaboration under various ongoing joint initiatives like Finnish Indian Consortium for Research and Education (FICORE), Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL), Scheme Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) and Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN).
