Pursuing Professional Courses in Regional Languages

 Introduction 

• The dreams of many Indian students seeking to pursue professional courses in their mother tongue can be realised. 

• The recent decision of 14 engineering colleges across eight States to offer courses in regional languages in select branches from the new academic year marked a historic moment. 

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Need for Education in Regional Languages 

• In a survey conducted by the AICTE, nearly 44% of students voted in favour of studying engineering in their mother tongue, underscoring a critical need in technical education. 

• New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 champions education in one’s mother tongue right from the primary school level. 

• It improves the learning outcomes of the child and the development of his/her cognitive faculties. 

• Multiple studies have proved that children who learn in their mother tongue in their early, formative years perform better than those taught in an alien language. 

• UNESCO and other organisations have been laying emphasis that learning in the mother tongue is germane to building self-esteem and self-identity, as also the overall development of the child. 

• Nobel Laureate, Sir C.V. Raman, observed We must teach science in our mother tongue. Otherwise It will not be an activity in which all people can participate.

While our educational system offers courses of international repute in engineering, medicine, law and the humanities, we have, paradoxically, excluded our own people from accessing it. 

• Over the years we have created a small bubble of English-medium universities and colleges, while our own languages languish when it comes to technical and professional courses. 

New Education Policy (NEP)

 • All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) decided to permit B. Tech programmes in 11 native languages in tune with the New Education Policy (NEP). 

• The NEP outlines the road map, demonstrating the means to protect our languages while improving the access and quality of our education. 

• NEP’s emphasis on the mother tongue as the medium of instruction will instil confidence in students from poor, rural and tribal backgrounds. 

Global Practices 

• Among the G20, most countries have state-of-the-art universities, with teaching being imparted in the dominant language of their people. 

• In South Korea, nearly 70% of the universities teach in Korean, even as they aspire to play a role on the international stage. 

• The South Korean government, in 2018, banned the teaching of English prior to third grade in schools, since it appeared to slow pupils’ proficiency in Korean. 

• In Japan, a majority of university programmes are taught in Japanese.

• In China too, universities use Mandarin as the medium of instruction. 

• France went to the extent of having a strict ‘French-only’ policy as the medium of instruction in schools. 

• In Germany, even in tertiary education, more than 80% of all masters’ programmes are taught in German. 

Concerns / Challenges.

• India has an overwhelming majority of professional courses being taught in English. In science, engineering, medicine and law, the native language courses are practically non-existent. 

• One of the biggest bottlenecks for more students to take up higher education in the native languages is the lack of high-quality textbooks, especially in technical courses. 

Not exclusivist 

• Laying the stress on instruction in the mother tongue is not exclusivist in nature. 

• One should learn as many languages as possible, but what is required is a strong foundation in the mother tongue. 

• It should not be seen as a ‘Mother tongue versus English’, but a ‘Mother tongue plus English’ approach. 

• In today’s increasingly interconnected world, proficiency in different languages opens new vistas to a wider world. 

• The sense of inferiority some display when it comes to speaking in their own languages must be removed. 

• If we neglect a language, not only do we lose a priceless body of knowledge but also risk depriving future generations of their cultural roots and precious social and linguistic heritage. 

• We must unlock the full potential of our youth, without letting their inability to speak a foreign language impede their progress. 

Way Forward 

• We must begin with imparting primary education (at least until Class 5) in the student’s mother tongue. It should be scaled up over the next few years to ensure that the dreams of millions of students seeking to pursue professional courses in their mother tongue are realised. 

• Private universities must join hands and offer a few bilingual courses, to begin with. 

• Technology can be suitably leveraged to increase the accessibility of these Indian language courses to students in remote areas. 

• AICTE and IIT Madras collaborated to translate SWAYAM’s courses into eight regional languages. 

• This will be a major boost for engineering students and help them transition more smoothly to an English-dominated curriculum in later years. 

• We need more such tech-led initiatives to democratise higher education.