The 6th BRICS Education Ministers Meeting

CAPE TOWN DECLARATION ON EDUCATION AND TRAINING

10 JULY 2018

We, the BRICS Ministers of Education and assigned representatives of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of South Africa, having met in Cape Town, the Republic of South Africa on 9 and 10 July 2018 respectively to discuss reforms, development, collaboration and exchanges on education among BRICS countries, hereby:

Recall the roadmap for BRICS education collaboration outlined by the Ministers at their inaugural meeting in November 2013, the Brasilia Declaration of 02 March 2015, the BRICS Moscow Declaration of 18 November 2015, the New Delhi Declaration of 30 September 2016, and the Beijing Declaration of 05 July 2017;

Acknowledge afresh, the significant contribution of education towards the overall development goals of BRICS;

Welcome the initiatives of BRICS Member States to promote a transformative education agenda that actively addresses 21^st century challenges and opportunities, especially regarding the technological changes commonly known as the fourth industrial revolution;

Recognise that access to education and training in all BRICS Member States is expanding rapidly, and that all Member States face common challenges in promoting educational equity, fostering quality and inclusive education;

Welcome the sharing of good practices and the promotion of exchange of information among BRICS Member States on the recognition of qualifications, workplace-based learning, technical and vocational education and training, digitisation to improve education and training, as well as on university partnerships; and

To ensure coordination and deeper cooperation among the Member States, hereby declare to:

1. Reaffirm our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all” that was set within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDG 4 - Education 2030 Framework for Action.
2. Strengthen collaboration in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) among BRICS Member States through:
3. Support the establishment of a coordinating process for the BRICS Network University. Russia has agreed to put together a proposal for the establishment of such a process to be presented at the IGB meeting to be held in October 2018.
4. Support an initiative by South Africa to develop a proposal on a BRICS Network University doctoral programme.
5. Encourage international thematic groups of the BRICS Network University to work upon harmonization of the educational quality standards in the areas of their expertise.
6. Support the establishment of a working group to develop a draft-referencing framework on quality assurance, accreditation and recognition of qualifications, which will enable improved learning and student mobility across BRICS Member States.
7. Share information on existing funding mechanisms within the BRICS Member States that can be used to leverage cooperation.
8. Encourage the BRICS Network University, through the ITGs, to actively pursue research collaboration on the fourth industrial revolution.
9. Encourage the BRICS Network University and BRICS University League to develop proposals on educator and student mobility.
10. Support an initiative by India to develop a proposal on digitisation to improve education and training, as well as policy in this area. This would include a comparative study of digital learning (e-learning) across schools, colleges and universities in BRICS Member States, with a view to, inter alia, learning and applying lessons from good practices.
11. Promote values and ethical practices in education.
12. Jointly explore the possibility of granting BRICS scholarships to students from BRICS Member States to pursue higher studies in each other’s countries. This will consolidate BRICS people to people ties and mutual learning.
13. Ensure that the above programmes and projects are coordinated by relevant BRICS senior education officials and focal points assigned by their Ministries.
14. Encourage participation in the fourth general BRICS Network University Conference to be held in Brazil in 2019 and the conference “Education and World Cities” in May 2019 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1. Revitalising the working group on TVET by each Member State identifying a focal point to develop a programme of action for TVET collaboration;
2. Facilitating the sharing of information and frameworks about TVET educator development, TVET qualifications and TVET curricula, including the development of open online courses among BRICS Member States;
3. Enabling the TVET collaboration, Brazil will:
   1. Host a seminar to showcase innovation among TVET institutions in BRICS Member States; and
   2. Encourage the articulation of joint TVET initiatives with the BRICS Business Council (BRICS Skills Development Working Group) and the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers Meeting (BRICS Labour Employment Working Group) and the expansion of opportunities for workplace-based learning (WBL).

       

The Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, and the People’s Republic of China extend their appreciation to the government of the Republic of South Africa for hosting the 6th BRICS Education Ministers Meeting. 

The English version of this Declaration has been signed on July 10, 2018 in Cape Town. This Declaration has been executed in five (5) duplicate originals and all originals shall be equally valid.