The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (UNESCO MGIEP) has signed a key strategic agreement with the Director National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to train and certify 8.4 million teachers in India on digital pedagogies and social and emotional learning SEL). The program will start next year and will be the largest ever training program for teachers in the world.
While UNESCO MGIEP has brought 300,000 learners on its platforms and claimed having trained them, the details of the implementation of this MoU with NCERT were not available immediately but it will be online as was confirmed by NCERT chief. Prof J S Rajput, a former director of NCERT who also served on NEP formulation panel was acknowledged to have started this process and brought the two institutions together.
UNESCO MGIEP has been using evidence-based pilot projects with teachers as researcher to devise its programs as it sees education as the greatest means to achieve the objectives of sustainability and peace.
“Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) aims to achieve a resilient, peaceful, and sustainable planet by training and nurturing the social and emotional development of children. SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) acts as an anchor in transforming societies towards sustainable peace – helping build emotional and social intelligence for all learners if begun at an early age. Over the years, we have managed to train 300,000 learners in SEL in 15 countries, published over 45 research publications, and collected 5 million stories as part of our Kindness Campaign. In order to scale, connect and reach every learner, the Institute developed its own indigenous General Data Protection Regulation compliant Artificial-Intelligence powered learning platform, FramerSpace, which now has 250,000+ learners,” said Dr. Anantha Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP.
‘Building Kinder Brains’, the vision of MGIEP, aims to achieve a sustainable and peaceful planet through developing social and emotional competencies of children, towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4, Target 7. With the “right” education, the ability to train and nurture young adults from an early age will lay a strong foundation to achieve a resilient and peaceful planet.
UNESCO MGIEP which celebrated its 10 year anniversary in a special event from 5th to 8th of December 2022 in New Delhi focused on how education for human flourishing in the future will look and what are the challenges and opportunities we will face when transitioning from our present educational system to the new vision.
During this event, a letter of intent was signed with the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), Government of Karnataka and Excelsoft Technologies, in which UNESCO MGIEP will act as knowledge partners to operationalize the education vertical of Centre of Excellence on Metaverse announced by the State Government of Karnataka in Mysuru, India.
A third agreement was signed between MGIEP and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to collaborate on joint areas of research in learning, in particular, the impact of technology on learning and cognitive development in children and applications of cognitive science in developing innovative technologies for learning in the classroom.
The Institute also released its research publications on SEL Guidelines for policymakers and schools, the Universal Screening Guidelines, The Blue DOT (the Institute’s flagship publication) on Mental Health and SEL as well six country-specific Digital Readiness Index summaries for Maldives, South Africa, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan and Estonia.
