On 1 December 2020, the 13th Education Week of SCO Member States Education without Borders officially opened via videoconference. The event was held as part of the Russian chairmanship of the SCO. It lasted until 4 December and was organised by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Government of the Novosibirsk Region and the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.
The participants included representatives of SCO ministries of education and science and heads leading higher education institutions affiliated with the SCO University.
Deputy SCO Secretary-General Sherali Jonon read out a message of greetings from SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov. The message states that the theme of the 2020 Education Week of SCO Member States Education without Borders was highly symbolic because, at present due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world, including the SCO countries, lives in conditions of lockdowns, various restrictions of freedom of movement and the absence of in-person communication. Therefore, efforts to maintain and further expand cooperation in education, to jointly overcome physical and technological obstacles and barriers and to elevate cooperation to an even higher level are a priority for 2021, when the SCO will mark its 20th anniversary.
The Secretary-General's message also noted that, in the current complicated situation, education cooperation between countries continues unabated. On the contrary, it is acquiring a new impetus. New opportunities are emerging through the use of information and communication technology and cutting edge methods and methodologies of academic programmes.
In this context, Vladimir Norov highlighted the special role of the SCO University, established in 2007 at the initiative of President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the SCO summit in Bishkek. The SCO University accomplishes an important mission of training skilled personnel in careers that have top priority for the economic and social development of the SCO member states and for expanding integration processes in education, science and technology.
The Secretary-General expressed confidence that important decisions made by member states on 30 June 2020 at the 1st meeting of the SCO University's Coordinating Council held via videoconference would provide the required impetus to joint work.
The SCO member states reaffirmed the fact that the SCO University is becoming an effective format for expanding intra-SCO cooperation in the area of higher education, deepening cooperation between universities and working out methods for implementing joint educational projects in the multilateral format.
It was also noted that participants in the 30 November 2020 SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in New Delhi passed an action plan for 2021-2025. The document aims to implement the programme of multilateral trade and economic cooperation and sets forth specific areas of education work.
For example, the member states intend to cooperate in the area of higher education, additional professional and secondary professional education by exchanging experience and advanced practices, helping establish direct contacts between educational institutions in the SCO member states and implementing joint projects, including by discussing the possibility of establishing the SCO Association of Secondary Professional Education Institutions.
The parties are determined to exchange experience and advanced practices in the area of professional standards, including by utilising the SCO University's capabilities. The action plan stipulates joint events to train researchers and teachers, including through the use of digital and information and communication technology.
The SCO Education Week is inextricably linked with implementing the Agreement on Education Cooperation between the Governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Member States signed on 15 June 2006 in Shanghai.
By 2008, most countries had ratified the Agreement. That same year, Moscow hosted the 1st SCO Education Week, which became a regular venue bringing together education administrators and experts to discuss integration and harmonisation in this area over the next five years. Later, the event was held in other Russian and foreign cities.
This made it possible to introduce new and unique practices that seriously influenced the development of education cooperation.
Moscow will host the first two days of the 13th SCO Education Week. Representatives of specialised agencies and rectors of leading higher education institutions of the SCO countries will exchange views on education cooperation at plenary meetings and roundtable discussions. After that, Novosibirsk will take over and host the International Scientific and Practical Conference of the SCO University.
The Education Week will become one of the final events on the packed agenda of Russia's SCO chairmanship in 2019-2020.