More than 1.5 lakh people took ‘Shiksha Sankalp’ pledge to pursue education and
lifelong learning - Shri Sanjay Kumar
India’s G20 4 th Education Working Group and Education Ministerial meeting to be
held in Pune from 19 th to 22 nd June
The Ministry of Education is all set to host the 4 th and the final Education Working Group
(EDWG) meeting in Pune, Maharashtra from 19 th to 21 nd June, 2023 under the theme of
“Ensuring Foundation Literacy and Numeracy, especially in the context of blended
learning” and culminate with the Education Ministerial meeting on 22 nd June 2023.
Secretary, Higher Education, Shri K. Sanjay Murthy; Secretary, Department of School
Education & Literacy, Shri Sanjay Kumar and Secretary, Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship, Shri Atul Kumar Tiwari today interacted with the media at the curtain
raiser press conference and briefed on the upcoming G20 4th Education Working Group
meeting, Ministerial Meeting, Jan Bhagidari events and precursor events to be held in Pune.
Shri Sanjay Murthy informed that like the previous meetings, a seminar will be preceding the
main EdWG Meeting and it will be based on the priority area of Foundational Literacy and
Numeracy. He further informed that at the moment, countries such as Spain, Australia,
Indonesia, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China and UK have all expressed their interest in the
topic of the seminar and will be participating as panellists. He explained that as a precursor
to the G20 EdWG meeting, the Department of Higher Education is organising a seminar in
collaboration with ELSEVIER on 16th June at IISER, Pune. The seminar will be held on the
theme 'Accessible Science: Fostering collaboration'. This event will convene stakeholders
across the scientific community to discuss best practices for accessible Science, how
accessible Science can be applied across individual nations with differing local capacities,
and ways to utilize science practices to support global progress, he added.
Shri Murthy also informed that the Education Working Group meeting will conclude with the
Ministerial Meeting, which will witness the participation of Education Ministers from G20
members and invited countries. Outcome documents such as a compendium of best practices
amongst nations in the priority areas, a report and the ministerial declaration will be
presented at the Ministerial Meeting. As of date 14 ministers have confirmed participation in
the ministerial meeting from the following nations: UK, Italy, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia,
South Africa, Singapore, Oman, Mauritius, Japan, Bangladesh, Egypt, UAE and Netherlands.
Shri Sanjay Kumar, informed about the various precursor events being organised by the
Department of School Education and Literacy. As a run-up to the main event, a 2-day
National Conference on Foundation Literacy and Numeracy, ‘Creating the Base for Lifelong
Learning’ will be organised from 17 th to 18 th June at Savitribai Phule University, Pune. The
conference will help identify and discuss the best practices states are adopting in creating an
environment that facilitates foundational literacy and numeracy in young learners. He also
informed that the objective of the conference is to reflect on two important themes - teaching
learning approaches and pedagogy for FLN in the context of Multilingualism & capacity
building and training of teachers in blended mode. The experts from various fields have been
invited to share their experiences and learning with the audience to identify the areas of joint
initiatives, cross learning & the challenges in the implementation. Representatives from the
Education Departments of all States & UTs in India, Knowledge partners of Government of
India (UNESCO & UNICEF) and civil society agencies will be participating in this event, he
added.
Shri Kumar further informed that, concurrently, an exhibition will be inaugurated on 17 th June
at Savitribai Phule University, Pune. It will showcase innovative practices being adopted in
education and FLN, Digital initiatives, Research & Skill Development, in particular by the
States, UTs and other agencies in the field of education Around 100 exhibitors will be
participating in the exhibition. He ended by saying that lifelong learning begins when
Foundational Literacy ends.
He also informed that to involve people from all strata of life, numerous activities, including
Janbhagidari events, workshop, exhibitions, seminars and conferences have already been
started from 1 st June, 2023 at State, District, Block, Panchayat and school level to involve
people from all strata of life in the run up to the fourth Education Working Group Meeting of
G20.The entire program is turning out to be a huge success, and has already witnessed a total
participation of more than 2.33 crore including 1.57 crore students, 25.46 lakh teachers and
51.10 lakh people from community till Day 12, which is not only unprecedented but also
reflects a high level of interest and engagement among masses.
Shri Atul Kumar Tiwari informed about the success of Jan Bhagidari in Odisha and said a
similar campaign is being held based on a set of pre-identified 35 themes such as financial
literacy in lead up to the 4 th EdWG meeting. He informed that MSDE has been able to
mobilise 2300 skill based institutions such as ITIs, JSS, PMKK, Polytechnic, Indian Institute
of Entrepreneurship and some schools, colleges and universities and have witnessed 10 lakhs
plus participation in Jan Bhagidari activities ranging from webinars, workshops, skill quizzes
to awareness programs, rallies from across the country. Shri Tiwari said that MSDE has been
constantly working with the Ministry of Education towards the Education working group
meetings.
In addition to this, Ministry of Education has launched a pledge titled ‘Shiksha Sankalp’ on
mygov.in portal to encourage students, teachers and the general public to pledge to pursue
education and lifelong learning to contribute towards the progress of the nation and to keep
on developing skills and knowledge to become a responsible citizen of India. More than
1.5lakh people have taken the pledge so far in less than a week’s time.
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