Commonwealth chief lauds India's technical assistance

India's technical assistance is critically important to the Commonwealth as it gives hope to many of the developing states, Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has said.

She said this on Thursday (16) while hosting the two-day 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers meeting in London on the theme of “Driving Resilience, Equity, and Skills for an Inclusive Future”.

Patricia welcomed India's willingness to share technological developments with the Commonwealth in an open-source way and hoped for greater commitment towards the organisation's educational goals.

She called on ministers to help eliminate the barriers that impede access to education, harness technology and encourage lifelong learning.

“India has made it clear that she is willing to share her technological developments with her Commonwealth family and share it in an open-source way,” Patricia said.

Describing the Commonwealth representing one-third of the world as a “petri dish” for sustainable development models, Scotland said she looked forward to India's “re-instatement of significant support for our programmes, hopefully not just in kind but in a financial manifestation”.

The keynote address at the conference was delivered by social reformer and Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, who highlighted India's huge leap in the field of education in the last 15-20 years and proposed “compassionate intelligence” as a guiding force to achieve equitable educational outcomes for children across the Commonwealth.

“Compassionate intelligence is selfless, genuine problem-solving. The disconnect between the problem solvers and problem sufferers is a serious question mark. Education ministers and the education sector can play a leadership role in ensuring that our children can develop compassionate intelligence and mitigate growing divides and discriminatory practices,” he said.

ACU Secretary-General Professor Colin Riordan said: “Ensuring inclusive, quality higher education for all will require collaboration amongst partners, institutions and governments that transcends national borders." (PTI)