By Sanjaya Mishra
From time to time, we come across narratives of making India a Vishwa Guru again, which align with the aspiration of Viksit Bharat by 2047. Considering India’s cultural heritage and knowledge power in science, engineering, and information technology, there is a considerable scope for extending education diplomacy and becoming a Vishwa Mitra for other countries of the world.
Education diplomacy is the soft power through which a country uses education and related services to build positive, strong relationships with other countries, advancing common goals. It is an essential part of a country’s foreign policy to envision the role of education in international development and cooperation.
Most developed countries have been adopting such practices. Scholarship programmes such as the Fulbright (USA) or the Commonwealth Fellowship (UK) are examples of such initiatives. Many countries have also established specialised departments to support education and research, such as the International Development Research Centre (Canada).
The US Department of State has run the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) since 1940. Many IVLP alums have become presidents and prime ministers in over 130 countries around the world. Similarly, an evaluation of the Commonwealth Fellowship scheme revealed that its alums include eight presidents/prime ministers/deputy prime ministers, 60 ministers, 262 vice chancellors, and 566 CEOs in the private sector in countries around the world. What is more important to note is that over 90% of the 31,000 alumni continue to maintain professional contact in the UK after several years of their fellowship.
India also contributes to such activities through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The ICCR offers several scholarships and fellowship programmes for nationals of more than 120 countries. ICCR has India Chairs established in several foreign universities on subjects related to Indian Studies (Political Science, Philosophy, History, Sociology, Economics, Buddhist Studies, and Law) and Indian Languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Tamil).
India is also a major contributor to UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning. India hosts UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace. In addition, India has taken several steps to extend its presence at many multilateral forums, including the G20. In 2023, when India hosted the G20, it presented a clear vision to the world for collaboration across boundaries by highlighting (i) the need for cooperation to ensure that all children receive quality foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) and can enjoy opportunities for lifelong learning, (ii) the opportunity to leverage digital resources and technologies to accelerate progress in education, and (iii) the need to rethink education systems to focus on the future of work.
Some Indian higher education institutions, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, have already started opening off-campus centres abroad. India has also permitted foreign universities to operate campuses within India.
While many of these steps are great, India must further extend its soft power by focusing attention through increased support and technical contributions to intergovernmental and multilateral organisations, including active engagements on how these organisations operate and contribute to global developments aligned with Indian interests.
India’s education diplomacy must focus beyond scholarships and offer bilateral support to countries by providing technical and human resource assistance to improve their education systems. For example, India’s digital education infrastructure is among the best in the world, with a national online learning platform, several digital educational television channels, and a platform for teacher professional development. The Government of India could leverage these to support developing countries in the Global South in achieving SDG4.
India is also a leader in open and distance learning, and the expertise available could be a source for collaboration with other countries that may need our support.
There are several countries around the world that are unable to create and establish their own school education systems. They continue to depend on foreign private providers for curricula and assessment even after independence. India’s experience in managing large systems like the Central Board of Secondary Education, producing high-quality learning materials through the National Council of Educational Research and Training and the National Institute of Open Schooling, and the availability of robust digital infrastructure could be valuable resources for other countries to adapt and learn from.
In fact, there is a massive demand for reliable support that India can provide to other countries. As such, Indian education diplomacy may look beyond higher education and consider creating a specialised organ to coordinate educational development across different countries at all levels.
Such an effort could further collaborate with other international agencies and foundations to improve the financing of education needed to achieve equitable access to quality education for lifelong learning. Such an agency can also run additional marketing and outreach programmes to attract more international students to India.
The Indian diaspora worldwide wants to remain connected and learn about its cultural roots and heritage. Stronger education diplomacy could further spread awareness about Indian knowledge systems within the diaspora.
We need to strengthen our relationships with other countries by institutionalising Vidya Maitri (Education Friendship), as we did with the Vaccine Maitri initiative during COVID-19. The route to a developed India we envision goes through Vidya Maitri and sharing our expertise in science, engineering, and information technology with other countries in a systematic and targeted way.
The writer is Education Specialist at the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada
