Come next year and students at the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology will we able to study technology courses in their mother tongue, the Union Ministry of Education said on Thursday, 26 November.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the ministry, chaired by Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal. According to the ministry, certain IITs and NITs are being shortlisted for the process.
“A seminal decision was made to start technical education, especially Engineering courses imparting education in mother tongue will be opened from next academic year. A few IIT and NIT are being short listed for the same.”Statement from the Union Ministry of Education
The move comes amid a great focus on mother tongue as the medium of instruction, as mentioned in the National Education Policy.
NEP’s Focus on Mother Tongue
The NEP ‘emphasises’ the use of mother tongue or local language as the medium of instruction till Class 5, while recommending its continuance till Class 8 and beyond. According to the policy, Sanskrit will be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula.
Earlier in October, Dr Pokhriyal had said that students will be able to write the JEE (Main) in their regional languages as the Joint Admission Board has decided to conduct the high-stake engineering entrance exam in more regional languages.
At present, candidates can write the entrance exam in English, Hindi and Gujarati. JEE Main is an entrance examination conducted twice in a year for admissions to undergraduate engineering and architecture courses at NITs, CFTIs and other institutions.
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