All India Council for Technology Education (AICTE) allows the colleges to offer engineering courses in 5 regional languages – Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, and Hindi. AICTE is presently working on translating the training courses into 11 regional languages.
AICTE Allows Colleges to Offer Engineering Courses in 5 Regional Languages
National Education Policy (NEP) suggested the AICTE to offer courses in regional languages. This facility has been introduced to avoid discrimination against students in higher education. The AICTE also expressed that the students have expressed their interest to study in their mother tongue. In a study conducted by AICTE, 43.79% of students have expressed their interest to study undergraduate degree courses in the regional languages. The study has been conducted on 83,195 students. In the survey, 12,487, 7,818, and 3,991, students have expressed to choose the Engineering in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages.
Followed by the survey, the AICTE has decided to implement the regional languages in technical education. Headed by Prof. Prem Vrat, the committee said that the regional languages courses will be offered in IITs/NITs, and AICTE institutes.
Various IITs have not agreed to offer the courses in regional languages due to various reasons such as faculty shortage to teach the subjects in regional languages. While 14 AICTE colleges have expressed their interest to offer engineering courses in regional languages. Various courses which are being offered in regional languages are IT, B. Tech Computer Science, civil, electrical, mechanical, and electronics.
The AICTE is planning to organize the Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) to ensure quality education under the multilingual engineering education system.
English in Mandatory
English will be mandatory for students who are pursuing Engineering courses in regional languages.
“Students shall have to take a mandatory English course in all four years so that they are able to acquire necessary skills in the English language and are capable of getting employment in any part of the world,” said AICTE.
The AICTE said that the scientific and technical terms will not be translated into regional languages in order to maintain uniformity.
“They shall continue to be used as is used in the scientific literature for easy mobility of students later.”
This is set as a prerequisite to “ensure that good quality institutes and programmes alone are made available to regional language courses,” according to the rules.
Demand for Regional Language increases with Seniority
“Students are more enthusiastic to have their engineering education in English, however, as they progress further they found themselves to be uncomfortable to learn with the English language, hence the response goes on increasing favouring to the education in the mother tongue.”
As a result of the survey, 74.33% male candidates have shown their interest to study in the regional language while only 25.67% have shown their interest to study in the native language. Students who studied in the regional language in classes 10th and 12th ie, 49.88% of candidates have expressed their interest in pursuing the course in the regional language.
The joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided in 2020 to conduct the JEE Main examination in various regional languages. The languages include, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, and Punjabi.
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