Speaking to Education Times, Anil Sahasrabuddhe, President, AICTE says, “We approved BTech courses in five different languages Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and Hindi with effect from July 15, 2021. Many universities showed interest to start B.Tech courses in the regional. languages. However, colleges or universities will have to transparently inform the stakeholders. Recently, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCoE) in Pune sought permission to start engineering courses in Marathi.
“This practice of allowing colleges to start courses in the regional language is in line with NEP 2020. This has been done to make the students understand the subject in depth as learning in their mother tongue will make learning easier. For example, if a student is proficient in Kannada, he should not be forced to learn in English, it will lead to lower learning levels.
Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune, affiliated to Savitri Bai Phule Pune University, got approval from AICTE to start BTech course in Marathi in July this year.
The objective of this entire initiative is to ensure that students pursuing schooling in regional languages are not left out. Most of these students lose confidence and face cultural trauma,” he adds.
Sahasrabuddhe further said that AICTE has created a support system in terms of translated content of SWAYAM MOOC courses and good quality books in Indian languages.
Harbhajan Bansal, Dean, Academic Affairs, Guru Jambeshwar University, in Haryana’s Hisar district, says, “We are in the process of discussing a proposal regarding availability of books in Hindi and nothing has been finalized yet. When publishers across the state come to know that engineering will be taught in Hindi language, they will translate engineering books into Hindi after taking permission from the author.
We welcome the initiative of AICTE, but would also like some more clarity on this. If we can start engineering course in Hindi, we will do it tentatively in the months of July-August from the next academic session. Also, teachers need some time to prepare for teaching Hindi. Admission to engineering courses in Haryana is done by the Haryana State Counseling Society. To teach engineering in Hindi, we need additional classes and recruit new faculty and non-teaching staff.
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