Paris: India is committed to promoting UNESCO’s agenda, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said today, observing that the UN body’s responsibilities have become bigger owing to its work in the field of education, culture and science.
Delving into India’s efforts in developing the education sector, the human resource development minister said accessibility, equity, quality, affordability and accountability are five important pillars in this arena.
“Multilateralism needs to succeed. For this, we need to stick to our original agenda. We should maintain line and length and should not divert. It is not confrontational but cooperative federalism. Every member state is sovereign but will come together for common good,” he said.
The minister was speaking during the general policy debate at the 39th General Conference of UNESCO here.
“UNESCO’s responsibilities to the future has become bigger…So our resolves must be stronger. This is the extraordinary legacy of our partnership with UNESCO from the time of its birth and we would like to see it continue,” Javadekar said.
He also recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed with UNESCO about ‘an introspection into our different cultures, traditions and religions to overcome the rising tide of extremism, violence and divisions that plague our world’.
“This is our original agenda, education, culture, science and communication. In this, we learn from each other. We share best practises. This is UNESCO’s agenda. We must promote it,” he said.
Highlighting the Massive Open Online Courses launched in July this year, Javadekar noted that 400 courses have been made available and more than 18 lakh students and citizens have registered for it.
Earlier, on the sidelines of the UNESCO General Conference, the minister had a bilateral meeting with his Afghanistan counterpart and had interaction with E-9 Ministers at E-9 Ministerial lunch.
Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan are referred to as the E-9 countries.
Afghanistan sought India’s help in curriculum development. India has assured to provide all help to develop a scientific curriculum relevant to Afghanistan.
PTI