TAWANG, Oct 28: The Arunachal Pradesh government and the British Council of India (BCI) signed a memorandum here on Saturday to strengthen educational and cultural cooperation and economic growth.
The MoU was signed by BCI Director Alan Gemmell on behalf of the BCI, and the state’s Higher & Technical Education Director Dr Tayek Talom on behalf of the state government, in the presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.
Under the MoU, the BCI will train 50 faculty members from government higher education institutions in the state every year, starting in December this year. Of these, 30 members will be from government colleges, 10 from government polytechnic institutes, eight from central institutions established in Arunachal, and two from officers of the higher education administration.
Further, 50 students of higher and technical education institutes will be trained by the BCI in English language skills annually.
The BCI will also work towards improving English communication skills of the state’s civil servants; developing capacity-building initiatives in the state; supporting improvements in the teaching of mathematics and science; conducting capacity-building programmes for faculty and senior administrators of higher education institutions; and ‘increasing the student and academic mobility for Arunachal Pradesh’.
Pema expressed hope that the MoU would help enhance opportunities for the state’s young people in education and culture and connect them to international expertise and ideas.
Gemmel also assured to extend support to Arunachal’s world-class festivals such as the Ziro Festival of Music and the Tawang Festival which promote the rich cultural heritage of the state globally.
“This MoU also supports the vision of the chief minister in enhancing human resource capacity-building in higher education, and, subsequently, in school education,” he said.
Director of the BCI in Northeast India, Debanjan Chakrabarti, also spoke. (DIPRO)
