Pretoria - Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande has concluded a successful visit with his Jamaican counterpart, Reverend Ronald Thwaites, where issues of collaboration, research, knowledge sharing and exchange programmes were discussed.
Nzimande visited Jamaica recently at the invitation of Thwaites with the purpose of strengthening bilateral relations between South Africa and Jamaica and to concretise the strategic partnership between the two countries in the field of education.
The visit allowed the two ministers to explore possible areas for cooperation and strategic partnerships to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices in the field of education and training.
"The visit follows on the footsteps of the President's visit to the country in August and was successful in that we identified several areas of further exploration and cooperation, which included opportunities for bilateral and tripartite cooperation, with specific interest in faculty development programmes for under developed institutions of higher education," Nzimande said.
During the visit, Nzimande also met with various stakeholders in higher education, where they shared information on the education systems and the challenges in both the South African and Jamaican education.
He also visited various institutions of higher education in Jamaica and met with various government ministers and senior management of academic institutions, where they also discussed areas of collaboration, networking, research as well as knowledge and experience sharing."
During the visit by President Jacob Zuma in August, the two countries had reflected on bilateral, global and multilateral matters of interest and concern, with a specific focus on cooperation between universities on joint research projects and student and academic exchange programmes.
