From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Government of Karnataka and the British Council, UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural exchange, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Bengaluru on Friday, March 11 to renew their partnership in the area of Education, English and Arts aimed at creating global opportunities for Karnataka’s youth.
The MoU was signed at Vikasa Soudha in the presence of Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Minister of Higher Education, and B C Nagesh, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education.
G Kumar Naik, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, and Janaka Pushpanathan, Director, British Council, South India signed the MoU for three years.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ashwath Narayan said the extended three years MoU would enable to develop the skills of faculty and students from higher education institutions in the state and to expand collaborations through British Council initiatives such as the UK-India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI) and the Going Global Partnerships.
This MoU also paves the way to develop sustainable partnerships in research and innovation between Centers of Excellence (CoE) in UK and Karnataka in areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Ed-tech, Biosciences and Cyber-security, he stated.
Explaining the benefits, Dr Narayan explained that the MoU allows to build initiatives to improve English and employability skills of young people attending industrial training institutions (ITIs), engineering and management courses.
This facilitates student mobility between universities in India and the UK and enhances partnership opportunities between institutes in Karnataka and UK for internationalisation in the curricula, he said.
Janaka Pushpanathan, Director South India, British Council said the MoU would allow developing further initiatives to improve English teaching and enhance employability skills in schools and training institutes, building capacity in higher education and research and promote cooperation on inspiring young people in the state through arts and culture.
On the occasion, Steve Smith, International Education Champion, UK, extended the invitation for Ministers to participate in the Education World Forum (EWF) scheduled to be held in London in May 2022 to explore further partnerships for Karnataka.
Adrion Chadwick, Regional Director, British Council, South Asia, Dr S Selvakumar, Principal Secretay, Department of Primary and Secondary Education, P Pradeep, Commissioner, DCTE, Prof B Thimme Gowda, Vice-Chairman, Prof Gopalakrishna Joshi, Executive Director and Dr Tandava Gowda, Administrator, State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) were present.