A meeting of the working group of the BRICS Civil Society Forum "Education and Human Development" of the BRICS Civil Society Forum was held
On May 14, a meeting of the working group of the BRICS Civil Society Forum "Education and Human Development" was held at the HSE in Moscow on the initiative of the BRICS Expert Council. The participants of the meeting shared the features of educational systems, problems specific to their countries, as well as experience in implementing measures to improve the quality of education. The event was moderated by Evgeny Terentyev, Head of the working group of the BRICS Civil Society Forum "Education and Human Development", Director of the HSE Institute of Education. Experts from India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia took an active part.
The participants of the meeting expressed their appreciation for the organization of the meeting and the desire to cooperate within the framework of the BRICS Civil Society Forum to develop proposals to the heads of state. During the meeting, the importance of preparing a position paper and the quality of the preparatory work were noted. The experts have developed a number of recommendations that will be included in the final version of the text of the document. For example, it was proposed to include a statement on multisectoral cooperation at the national level between education, health and social services, as well as local municipalities, to create an enabling environment in which children and youth can learn and develop. In addition, the discussion highlighted the need to focus on socio-emotional learning and the alignment of socio-emotional competence with local values, beliefs and practices.
The meeting participants also stressed the importance of partnerships between the school and the community of parents, educators and volunteers to provide high-quality educational support to students. In addition, experts noted that it is necessary to ensure a gender balance in admission to educational institutions by implementing a more stringent policy: to identify real barriers that affect women's access to education and eliminate them.
One of the key aspects of the meeting was the need to involve civil society in shaping policy in the field of research and education, as they advocate for improving the quality of education and human development. Within the framework of this issue, experts proposed the creation of a counseling system in educational institutions to maintain the psychological health and emotional well-being of students, and also advocated the introduction of interdisciplinary research that can contribute to the development of creative abilities, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
In the final part, the participants noted the importance of analyzing the labor market, linguistic and cultural characteristics of countries, as well as the priority of using an evidence-based approach in developing educational solutions.
The discussion will continue at the national level in face-to-face and online formats for further discussion with representatives of the BRICS countries.