SAARC ministers to discuss more and better education

New Delhi, October 31: Issues like strengthening cooperation in education among SAARC member states and deliberations to strengthen the capacity within the region for improving quality and learning outcomes will be discussed at the second meet of SAARC education ministers here Friday, an official statement said Thursday. The meeting is being co-hosted by the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry and the SAARC secretariat based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

"The ministers will discuss about strengthening cooperation in education amongst the SAARC member states. They will discuss the progress made by the SAARC countries on the SAARC Development Goals on Education and the strategy for education beyond 2015," the statement from the HRD ministry said. It added: "Deliberations to strengthen the capacity within the region for improving quality and learning outcomes, mobility, leveraging the potential in research, mutual recognition of qualifications and effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education including sharing of e-resources and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will also be held in the meeting."

A presentation on the different programmes and the future strategy of the South Asian University here will also be made. The university was one of the outcomes of the SAARC process of development. Education ministers and senior officers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Maldives, and senior officers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka would participate in the meeting.

IANS