New Delhi: UGC is all set to introduce Indian language courses following the footsteps of AICTE, which introduced the engineering courses in Indian languages.
According to the reports, the new UGC chairman Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar has notified that the apex higher education regulator – UGC – had a discussion with the vice chancellors of all central universities, and those of several state universities, to consider offering full undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including professional courses in regional Indian languages.
The UGC Chairman said that the commission intends to introduce Indian language courses into the university system similar to AICTE.
The introduction of Indian languages will be done for STEM courses and other disciplines. Discussions with Vice Chancellors on this regard has been done, who have shown a positive outlook and an open attitude. Thus, the commission will soon start working on the roadmap.
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Kumar said that even though there are perceptions of difficulties in introducing the programs in local languages, it is quite “feasible” with the help of new technologies and real-time translation apps that are being developed.
However, the government attempting to introduce engineering courses at IITs in regional languages has encountered obstacles owing to the diverse mix of students, the difficulty of finding faculty with reasonable satisfaction and proficiency in the regional languages, and the lack of study material in languages other than English.
Since the courses in regional languages couldn't be implemented in the IITs, the AICTE introduced it in the engineering colleges. Nearly 20 engineering colleges in ten states now offer specific courses in six regional languages - Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.
The government has been a strong advocate for a switch to the mother tongue – from primary school onwards, in accordance with the new National Education Policy 2020.
According to the NEP 2020, there must be a steady stream of quality learning and print materials in those languages to remain relevant and alive. Languages should also have consistent official updates to their vocabulary and dictionaries.
The Prime Minister has often elucidated this in several of his remarks, and most recently in a webinar on the budgetary focus on education, where he highlighted a clear link between mother tongue education and children’s intellectual development.
Further, he grabbed everyone's focus on digitization in Household 2022 and the response to integrate digital learning tools and frameworks with Indian languages leading all the students to be equal and have accessibility to quality learning material in their native language.
Earlier in a speech in October 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar announced his plans to teach all technical courses, including medicine and engineering, in the native language.
Thereafter, high-level discussions and meetings on the subject were held at the Union Ministry of Education, eventually resulting in the AICTE initiative and now the UGC Action Plan.
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