Engineering courses can be conducted in regional languages; English still mandatory
The All India Council for Technology Education (AICTE) has allowed institutions to offer engineering courses in regional languages, starting with five languages— Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Bengali. However, students pursuing their degrees in regional languages are mandated to study English as well, according to AICTE.
“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,” AICTE told the media.
The changes would be applicable from the new academic year of 2020-21, with both online and offline content available in 11 languages. This decision was taken after considering the suggestions in National Education Policy (NEP) which states that authorities and boards are prohibited from discriminating against students on the basis of language preference in higher education institutions. The decision was also influenced by a recent survey's results in which an overwhelming 47% of students voted in favour of studying in their mother languages. The top three voted languages were Tamil (12,487), Hindi (7,818) and Telugu (3,991).
After considering the survey results, a committee headed by Prof. Prem Vrat recommended that the option of studying in non-English languages be extended to IITs/NITs and AICTE approved institutes.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have not agreed to the changes, citing the lack of skilled faculty as one of the few reasons. However, 14 engineering colleges across the country have expressed interest in teaching technical courses including B.Tech Computer Science, IT, mechanical, civil, electrical, and electronics, etc. in regional languages.
AICTE has also offered to conduct faculty development programs (FDPs) for the willing colleges so that they can offer multilingual education without compromising on the subject content.
However, AICTE has mandated English to still be a necessity in the syllabus. It has also announced that common scientific terms will not be translated into regional languages for uniformity and consistency of education.
For eligibility in teaching a multilingual course, the college will have to gain a valid NBA accreditation in the programme being taught. This is to “ensure that good quality institutes and programmes alone are made available to regional language courses,” as stated. However, the decision to offer the course multilingually is completely dependent on the college and its administrative authorities.
“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,” AICTE stated.
