Education Minister meets Finnish Ambassador to India; discusses innovations in education

Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan and Finnish Ambassador to India Ritva Koukku-Ronde on Monday, September 20, held a meeting on intensifying multi-faceted bilateral cooperation, especially in digital learning, innovation & other priority areas in the education sector. 

Taking to Twitter, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote, "Glad to meet HE Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Finnish Amb. to India and EU Gender Champion. We had productive discussions on intensifying our multi-faceted bilateral cooperation, especially in digital learning, innovation & other priority areas in the education sector. @AmbKoukkuRonde."

Aside from that, the leaders agreed to share best practices and work together to create capacity in vocational education and skill development as well as K-12 curriculum and pedagogy frameworks. Union Minister Pradhan stated, "We also agreed to exchange best practices and work together to build capacities in the areas of vocational education, skill development, K-12, curriculum & pedagogy frameworks, teacher training and ICTs."

Dharmendra Pradhan met Finnish diplomat

Last year, Dharmendra Pradhan and Finland's Ambassador Ritva Koukku-Ronde met to discuss ways to work on developing technology in clean and efficient energy generation. During the meeting, Pradhan and Koukku-Ronde had discussed the status of the 2G Ethanol facility in Numaligarh, which is the first of its kind in the world and was created through a joint venture between NRL and the Finnish businesses Chemopolis and Fortum. The then Minister of Petroleum also emphasised the "huge investment prospects in India's increasing clean energy sector" and urged Finnish companies to invest in the development of clean fuels, particularly waste-to-energy.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid foundation stone for IGNOU regional centre

Meanwhile, Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister of Education, on Sunday, September 19, laid down the foundation stone for IGNOU regional centre buildings in Bangalore, Noida, and Pune via virtual mode. Speaking about the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and emphasising especially higher education at the event, Dharmendra Pradhan said that the new policy envisages establishing India as a Global Knowledge Hub and ODL System (Open and Distance Learning) pioneered by IGNOU needs to have regulations to enable the same. IGNOU is playing a vital role in bringing higher education to the public, and top-notch infrastructure is imperative to offering quality education, Dharmendra Pradhan stated in his speech.

Image: @dpradhanbjp/Twitter