Education Times

These 13 colleges will offer tech lessons in five languages

The institutes have been sanctioned 60 additional seats by AICTE to impart first-year Engineering courses in the regional languages

Rajlakshmi.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

09.08.2021 

In line with provisions of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that calls for education in one’s mother tongue as far as possible, as many as 13 Engineering colleges from 8 states are starting to impart education in five Indian languages that include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali from the 2021-22 academic session.

To facilitate the process, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has already completed the task of translating video lectures of Engineering on the SWAYAM platform in eight regional languages with plans to translate content into Oriya, Assamese and Punjabi, as well. For helping the institutes, an AI Indian language-translation tool has been developed by the technical education regulator that will aid in developing content in 12 different regional languages.

Divided opinion

The push for technical education, more so Engineering, to be imparted in regional languages, beginning from the 2021-22 academic year, was first mooted by the Education Ministry in November 2020. A few of the IITs and NITs were also shortlisted, though opinions were divided over what would be most effective for the students, keeping in view their long-term research interests and overseas study plans, though English would be one of the mandatory subjects for the students studying in mother tongue.

Bridging the gap

In a recent turn of events, however, 13 colleges have been approved to impart engineering courses in five regional languages. This follows in the wake of the emphasis on mother tongue as the medium of instruction to instil confidence among students from humble backgrounds.

Accreditation matters

“While 14 Engineering colleges had applied to impart courses in Indian regional languages, 13 were approved. AICTE will not compromise on the quality of technical education and will permit only the institutions with accredited programmes. Currently, only those colleges that are running accredited programmes have been permitted to run the courses in the regional languages. Sanctions for additional 60 seats in Engineering and technical subjects over and above the existing seats have also been granted to each of them,” says Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE, while talking to Education Times.

Resources in regional languages

“AICTE has further mandated that any technical institution that is willing to impart AICTE-approved courses can also run programmes in regional languages, as long as they earmark certain seats from the sanctioned intake,” Sahasrabudhe adds. AICTE is ready with the first-year undergraduate and polytechnic course books in the regional languages that were earlier not available. Approval for select streams of Engineering have been granted to these 13 colleges. “Most of the approvals are for Computer Science, followed by Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology,” Sahasrabudhe says. Of the 13 colleges that received the AICTE nod, two colleges from Rajasthan, four from UP, one college from Madhya Pradesh and another college from Uttarakhand will run courses in Hindi; one college from West Bengal will impart courses in Bengali; a Maharashtra-based college will run courses in Marathi, while one college from Andhra Pradesh will run courses in Telugu and remaining two colleges from Tamil Nadu are slated to impart courses in Tamil.

Easy to comprehend

“Our faculty members were already teaching the courses in Tamil, though at an informal level. Since many of our students come from the rural interiors of Tamil Nadu and are first generation learners, they were finding it difficult to comprehend the courses in English; most of them are afraid to even ask questions,” says B Nagaraj, principal, Rathinam Technical Campus, Andhra Pradesh, that will soon impart Computer Science courses in Tamil for 60 seats, for which it has sought affiliation from Anna University. “Local language will enhance both the creative thinking and analytical skills of the students who were earlier too stressed to have faith in their strengths and abilities,” adds Nagaraj.

Much like Rathinam Technical Campus, the Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology (NIET), Greater Noida, will start BTech in Computer Science & Engineering in regional language. “Students will be able to answer in their native tongue. Over some time, the demand for software in regional languages will increase,” says Raman Batra, executive vice president, (NIET).