Digital transformation and education in BRICS; The role of artificial ielligence in training human resources – Mehr News agency RCO News Agency
According to RCO News Agency, quoted by BRICS TV, in the coext of global developmes, education is considered more than ever as a tool for shaping the future. According to experts, now is the time when the foundations of new educational systems and approaches are being formed in the BRICS couries. The member couries of this group each have differe experiences, historical backgrounds, and cultural traditions, but at the same time, they share significa commonalities in terms of scale, level of ambition, and vision for the future.
The influence of emerging economies on the global education agenda coinues to increase. At the same time, many BRICS couries are facing common challenges; including how to ensure equal access to school education, confro teacher migration, support inclusive education, linguistic diversity and strengthen iercultural dialogue.
According to the report prepared by the Russian Council of BRICS Experts in collaboration with the Institute of Education of the National Research University of the Higher School of Economics, in the academic year 2024-2023, about 35.9% of the world’s school-age children lived in the BRICS couries, and 35.3% of the world’s schools were also located in these couries. India topped the list with more than 365 million school-age children, followed by China with more than 211 million, Brazil with more than 53 million, Russia with more than 22 million, and South Africa with nearly 20 million.
Experts believe that the iroduction of digital technologies and neural networks to education can not only solve many challenges, but also lead to a real leap and make education universally available to everyone. However, fundameal questions remain: Will the quality of such education really be high? Isn’t this type of education weak compared to the classical model? And will educational digital platforms be able to train high-level professionals? The answer to these questions is still not clear.
Challenges and opportunities
What unites the BRICS couries more than anything else is the effort to ensure universal and equal access to compulsory education. In most of these couries, there is free and guaraeed education at primary and secondary levels. However, all members are facing problems in the field of quaity and quality of teacher training. Another challenge comes back to the field of demographics; In some couries, population growth requires a massive expansion of the education system, while in others, the migration of young people from rural areas has led to school closures.
Language diversity also often becomes a serious obstacle. For example, in Brazil and South Africa, the domina languages of education are Portuguese and English, which creates difficulties for children with differe mother tongues. The lack of textbooks and educational resources in local languages also limits access to education.
diversity of approaches; A poi for growth
If in the past the couries of the global South tried to solve these challenges by following the general and global recommendations, today there is a growing trend towards the value of governance in educational policy. There is a growing understanding that challenges can be turned io opportunities for growth if demographic and cultural characteristics are addressed. According to researchers, BRICS couries play a leading role in applying this approach.
Today, each of the BRICS couries has formulated special strategies suited to their specific conditions. For example, the Chinese governme focuses on ensuring equal access to quality education in all regions of the coury, which is of great importance for the developme of remote and rural areas. Meanwhile, South Africa and India are seeking to expand educational coverage and reduce dropout rates, while Russia and China have been concerned in rece years about too much educational pressure on studes. In Brazil, inclusive education has become a ceral policy focus. Russia and China, in corast, emphasize unified educational standards rather than accommodating the ierests of particular groups.
However, experts believe that the diversity of educational challenges in BRICS couries is not a weakness, but a valuable resource; Because it leads governmes to search for innovative solutions and exchange useful experiences.
Educational cooperation
BRICS couries cooperate with each other at the levels of specialized ministries, universities and research ceers. Stude and professor exchange, implemeation of network educational programs, conducting joi researches and creating scieific projects are among the axes of these collaborations. This process plays an importa role in the iernationalization of education and the transfer of best experiences, and in the long run, it can become a factor for transformation in the global education landscape.
Since 2015, the number of joi educational projects in the BRICS couries has multiplied and network educational programs and online courses have grown significaly. Estimates show that by 2030, the number of studes participating in joi programs can reach 100,000.
The main effect of these collaborations is the iernationalization of national education systems. As a result, Russian universities have iroduced elemes of humanities education io their programs, and Brazilian universities are benefiting from China’s experience in creating technological education clusters. This exchange will increase the global competitiveness of BRICS education systems.
Obstacles
Along with the achievemes, there are also obstacles. The first obstacle is the difference in priorities; While China and Russia focus on developing higher education and research, for couries like India and South Africa it is more importa to improve access to basic education. Another challenge is the lack of funding for joi initiatives. Also, the difference in licensing, accreditation and formalization systems of educational qualifications and cultural distance between couries complicates cooperation.
In an exclusive ierview with BRICS TV, Lobarto Sartoyo, an expert in foreign trade, law, information technology and creative industries, said: In my opinion, it is necessary to create a single university in BRICS couries so that trained professionals can work with a common degree in all BRICS Plus couries. This requires extensive cooperation and mutual recognition of documes.
BRICS Common Digital Resources
Experts believe that BRICS joi universities should operate online to some exte. Member couries have also agreed to create digital resources and joi scieific publications. In June 2025, the “Digital Resources” project was launched to provide information with QR codes in scieific and educational ceers.
Digitization of education
According to experts, pilot projects can become major BRICS educational platforms; Platforms that in some stages, the role of the teacher will be taken over by artificial ielligence. Alexander Titov, Deputy Secretary General of the Iernational Association of Digital Economies, emphasized that digitization can reduce inequalities in access to education and enable adaptive learning based on artificial ielligence.
At the same time, experts emphasize that digital education will not completely replace traditional education and a dual model will be formed that combines online and face-to-face education. Universities will also become research and training ceers for future leaders.
Look to the future
BRICS governmes have invested heavily in digital education infrastructure. However, digital inequality, high iernet costs and the digital literacy gap remain serious challenges. Experts predict that in the medium term, artificial ielligence and virtual reality will be more iegrated in education and common educational standards will be formed in BRICS.
According to analysts, iegrated digital education in BRICS couries can become one of the most importa public services in the future; Services whose quality will play a direct role in the training of human resources needed for economic growth.
