Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday called on BRICS member countries to work together to address shared challenges in education, saying issues such as resilience, innovation and sustainability cannot be tackled in isolation. Joshi was chairing the 13th BRICS Education Ministers’ Meeting in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, held from August 5 to 7 under India’s 2026 BRICS chairship.
The meeting concluded with the adoption of a five-point BRICS Education Ministers’ Declaration, setting out areas for deeper cooperation in early childhood education, technical and vocational training, research and innovation, recognition of academic qualifications, and academic leadership and capacity building.
The meeting brought together representatives of the expanded 11-member BRICS grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia at a time when education systems are confronting rapid technological change, shifting employment patterns and the growing need for sustainable and inclusive learning.
Joshi said India’s BRICS chairship is guided by “resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability” and reiterated the country’s commitment to a “people-centric and humanity-first approach” to BRICS cooperation. The ministerial meeting followed months of discussions among senior officials and thematic groups, with the declaration intended to turn those discussions into a more structured roadmap for cooperation.
Five Priorities For Education
The declaration places cooperation across the education lifecycle at the centre of the BRICS agenda. The five priority areas discussed under India’s chairship are Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE); Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and skill development; collaborative research, innovation and start-ups; mutual recognition of academic qualifications; and academic leadership and capacity building.
The agenda reflects an attempt to address both the foundational and future-facing needs of learners, from giving young children stronger educational foundations to preparing students and workers for changing labour markets.
The meeting was also preceded by the third BRICS Senior Education Officials’ Meeting, where officials discussed the draft ministerial declaration and an education roadmap. According to reporting from Bhubaneswar, officials focused on joint initiatives, sharing best practices and aligning education policies around inclusive growth, skills development and innovation.
The emphasis on early childhood education is significant because learning outcomes are strongly influenced by the quality of a child’s earliest educational experiences. Cooperation between BRICS countries could allow governments and institutions to share approaches to teacher preparation, foundational learning, child-centred teaching and access to early education. India’s own National Education Policy places considerable emphasis on foundational learning and early childhood care, making the BRICS focus relevant to domestic education priorities as well.
The second priority, technical and vocational education and training, addresses another common concern: how education systems can prepare young people for jobs being transformed by automation, artificial intelligence and technological change. The BRICS TVET Cooperation Alliance, which has been part of the grouping’s education discussions for several years, provides an existing platform for countries to exchange knowledge and develop cooperation in vocational education.
Under India’s chairship, a BRICS TVET Symposium and Joint Management Committee meeting were held in New Delhi on August 3 and 4, immediately before the ministerial meeting. This sequencing suggests an effort to connect technical discussions and institutional work with political commitments at ministerial level.
Research and innovation form the third pillar. BRICS countries collectively possess large higher education systems, research institutions and growing technology sectors, but the potential for cross-border academic collaboration remains significant. Greater cooperation could include joint research, institutional partnerships, start-up collaboration, academic exchanges and the sharing of scientific expertise.
The fourth priority mutual recognition of academic qualifications is aimed at making it easier, in principle, for qualifications obtained in one BRICS country to be understood and recognised in another. Such cooperation could support student mobility and academic and professional exchanges, although implementation would still depend on national accreditation and regulatory systems.
The fifth priority, academic leadership and capacity building, recognises that stronger education systems require more than policy declarations. Universities, colleges and other institutions need capable leadership, trained educators, effective governance and opportunities to learn from one another. The wider BRICS education agenda has previously emphasised cooperation, exchanges of best practices and institutional capacity as ways of making education systems more responsive to changing social and economic needs.
From Early Learning To Innovation
The Bhubaneswar meeting is not an isolated diplomatic event. It forms part of a year-long education programme under India’s 2026 BRICS chairship. Earlier engagements included meetings of senior education officials, work involving the BRICS Network University and discussions on technical and vocational education.
India assumed the BRICS chairship on January 1, 2026, with the overarching theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” The theme has been repeatedly presented by Indian officials as a people-centred approach to cooperation.
The education track has also sought to bring universities and researchers more directly into BRICS cooperation. In July, India hosted a BRICS Network University conference and International Governing Board meeting, alongside discussions on Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
The discussions examined ways of documenting and preserving such knowledge, while also considering community ownership, fair benefit-sharing and the ethical use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. India proposed Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge Systems as a new international thematic group within the BRICS Network University, receiving broad support from participating countries.
The Network University discussions also reviewed the 2025–2028 Action Plan, with cooperation around academic partnerships, research, institutional collaboration, student mobility and knowledge exchange forming part of the wider agenda.
This is relevant to the latest ministerial declaration because it shows that the education track is attempting to create links between governments, universities, researchers and students rather than keeping cooperation limited to ministerial meetings.
The focus on qualification recognition also builds on previous BRICS commitments. Earlier BRICS education declarations have identified mutual recognition of qualifications as an important mechanism for strengthening higher education cooperation and mobility. Previous education ministers have also discussed digital education, early childhood development, skills for a changing world, entrepreneurship and research cooperation.
This continuity matters because the latest declaration is not starting from scratch. BRICS has accumulated several education initiatives over the years, including the BRICS Network University and TVET Cooperation Alliance. The challenge for the expanded grouping is to ensure that these platforms result in practical opportunities for students, educators and researchers rather than remaining primarily diplomatic commitments.
The scale of the grouping adds both opportunity and complexity. BRICS now includes 11 members with widely different education systems, languages, economic conditions, qualification frameworks and demographic realities.
Yet these countries also face overlapping challenges: improving access to quality education, preparing young people for changing employment markets, responding to artificial intelligence and digitalisation, strengthening research ecosystems and ensuring that education remains accessible and relevant.
That is the context behind Joshi’s argument that common challenges cannot be dealt with separately. Artificial intelligence, climate change, technological disruption and changing labour markets are not confined to individual countries. They increasingly shape the lives and educational prospects of young people across borders.
The minister’s call for cooperation also reflects India’s broader BRICS approach. During another BRICS engagement in July, Joshi stressed that the grouping’s people-centric and humanity-first approach should underpin cooperation and said emerging challenges require inclusive and consensus-based solutions.
In the education context, that principle translates into sharing knowledge, strengthening institutions and expanding opportunities rather than treating education as a competition between countries.
Turning Commitments Into Change
The adoption of the five-point declaration provides BRICS countries with a common framework, but the real measure of its success will be what happens after the ministerial meeting.
For students, the most meaningful outcomes would be practical ones: easier movement between educational institutions, greater recognition of qualifications, more opportunities for international study and research, stronger vocational training, access to new skills and greater collaboration between universities and employers.
For teachers and academic institutions, it could mean professional exchanges, joint programmes, shared research and opportunities to learn from education systems facing similar challenges.
The experience of previous BRICS education cooperation shows why implementation matters. Earlier declarations have already committed members to areas such as early childhood development, digital education, vocational training, academic collaboration and mutual recognition of qualifications.
A South African government account of an earlier BRICS Education Ministers’ meeting, for example, highlighted commitments around climate education, skills for a changing world, recognition of qualifications, labour-market intelligence and early childhood development.
The latest five-point framework therefore needs to be judged not only by the breadth of its language but by whether it produces measurable outcomes. That could include the number of joint research projects, student and faculty exchanges, institutions participating in shared programmes, qualifications recognised across borders and vocational partnerships created through BRICS mechanisms.
There is also a broader social dimension. Education cooperation can build relationships between societies at a time when international politics is often marked by disagreements and competing interests. Students who study with peers from other countries, researchers who work across borders and educators who share experiences can create connections that extend beyond government-to-government relations.
This is particularly relevant to the expanded BRICS grouping. Its members do not share identical political systems, cultures or economic priorities, and cooperation will inevitably involve differences of opinion. Education, however, offers an area where practical collaboration can be built around a shared objective: giving young people better opportunities to learn, work and participate in society.
The Bhubaneswar declaration is therefore best understood as a framework rather than an endpoint. India’s chairship has brought resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability into the centre of the BRICS education conversation. The next test will be whether those principles can be translated into classrooms, laboratories, vocational institutes and universities.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Education should be one of the strongest bridges between societies. When countries with different histories, cultures and systems come together to exchange knowledge, train young people and support research, the benefits can extend far beyond government meetings. The five-point BRICS declaration is encouraging because it recognises that today’s education challenges from early learning and employability to artificial intelligence, research and academic mobility are increasingly shared challenges.
At the same time, declarations alone cannot improve a student’s life. The real measure will be whether cooperation reaches the young learner in a classroom, the student looking for a recognised qualification, the researcher seeking an international partner and the young person trying to acquire skills for a changing world of work.
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