Taking part in the virtual meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Ministers of Education yesterday, Education Minister Jai Bir Rai recommended for credit transfer among various universities and introducing a common facilitation centre among the SAARC member countries. The virtual meeting of SAARC Ministers of Education this year focused on various education sectors’ response to COVID-19 in the SAARC region.
According to Education Minister Jai Bir Rai, Moreover, credit transfer among various universities and a common facilitation centre or a toll-free number to help students who are stuck in various countries will facilitate uninterrupted delivery of education in such times.
“There are few courses and subjects in which we can have credit transfer, where we can talk with universities to universities, schools to schools and colleges to colleges among the member states. I would recommend and we should take forward the credit transfer. Secondly, I call it common facilitation centre, so in that case, in our SAARC region if we have a common understanding where our children and students, be it in any part of the country when such situation arises they can take the help from such facilitation centres,” Lyonpo said.
Sharing Bhutan’s response to COVID-19, the Education Minister said to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia who have been affected by the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, active collaboration and mutual assistance in various fields such as education, agriculture, science and technology has become important.
“In the spirit of regional cooperation that SAARC stands for, it is imperative that among the member countries we have resource sharing of high-quality programmes to have access to high-quality education. Since the pandemic is far from getting over and the situation returning to normal, in order to have quality virtual learning, it is important to have quality learning resources and programmes. In this respect I feel that SAARC can be a knowledge bank of good programmes that are of world-class quality, which can prepare our students for an ever more globalised world, making them more capable and adaptive for lifelong learning opportunities,” Lyonpo said.
Likewise, the virtual meeting also saw ministers and representatives of all eight SAARC member countries sharing their country’s response to COVID-19 and discussing measures to mitigate further disruptions to the learning process in the region. The 4th meeting of SAARC Ministers of Education this year was hosted by Nepal virtually.
Passang Dorji
