By IANS
New Delhi : India and Britain Monday agreed to work further together in the field of education to benefit not only their mutual countries, but also to meet global demand, especially in English education.
Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the setting up of an education forum, which will work towards negotiating and concluding an Education Partnership Agreement.
He extended his country’s support for the Indian government’s 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) that aims to expand higher education sectors by setting up eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, seven new Indian Institutes of Managements, five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and 30 new central universities.
The joint statement released Monday at the end of Brown’s two-day visit noted that both countries will pro-actively promote links between British universities and key Indian educational institutions to collaborate in the “establishment of at least one new Indian Institute of Technology, one new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research and one Central University proposed in the XI Five Year Plan”.
To this end, Indian and British vice-chancellors will be meeting later this year.
Besides, Brown also advocated faculty and student exchanges between education institutions.
There would be “further development” on collaboration in English language training, the statement said. “The two governments recognise the strong interest of higher educational institutions of both countries to work together to further their global educational objectives,” he said.
Before starting his trip to India and China, Brown had announced a plan to teach English to two billion people around the globe by 2020. This initiative would be kicked by recruiting “master trainers” in India to develop 750,000 English teachers within five years.