Valery Falkov, the head of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, convened the Eighth Meeting of Education Ministers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The summit in Moscow was attended by representatives from India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus, as well as Chinese Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng and Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek of Kazakhstan and Saidzoda Rahim Hamro of Tajikistan.

The minister of science and education welcomed all attendees and expressed gratitude for their assistance of the Russian proposal to organise a meeting modelled after Kazakhstan’s association chairmanship. He expressed his gratitude to Kazakhstan and the SCO Secretariat for their assistance.

“It is a pleasure that, for the first time in 2018, we finally managed to gather all together in the circle of partners to summarise the results of five years of work and discuss new initiatives in the field of education. Over the past period, the SCO family has grown. The wide representation of our partners in the organisation at today’s meeting confirms the authority and elevated global importance of this platform for addressing the tasks of the national and world agenda,” Valeriy Falkov said.

Since 2022, Iran has been a full member of the SCO. Belarus, as an observer state, is actively working to raise its status to full membership. The decision will be taken during the SCO Heads of State’s summit in Astana in July.

Valeriy Falkov spoke about the work carried out by the Ministry of Science of Russia to ensure quality and affordable higher education, identifying four major projects: the creation of a network of modern campuses, the programme of support of university leaders “Priority-2030,” federal programmes “Advanced Engineering Schools,” and the “Platform of University Technological Entrepreneurship.”

In turn, the SCO Deputy Secretary General Nuran S. Niyazaliyev thanked the Russian side for the high organization of the conditions for the work of all delegations.

“For the SCO member states, it is important to unite their efforts and to strengthen cooperation in the fields of education and science consistently. I am confident that strengthening cooperation in these areas will contribute to mutual enrichment of experience, innovation, improvement of socio-economic living conditions of the population, considering the continued growth of SCO member nations”, he said.

Cooperation in the areas of academic exchanges was the focus of the meeting, as well as conducting joint research, organising vocational education, language learning, intensifying youth interaction, and digitization in education.

They noted the effectiveness of the University of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the training of learners in seven areas. Among other things, his concept was complemented by new specialties: agronomy, journalism, medicine, and jurisprudence.

Following the gathering, the participants approved of the following: the makeup of the Coordinating Council of SCO University; the number of Trusteeship Board members; and the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Agreement among the Governments of the SCO Member States on Cooperation in the Field of Education (from June 15, 2006) for the period 2024-2026.

The heads of delegations decided to hold the next meeting of Ministers of Education in the PRC.

Photo: Ministry of Education and Science