New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will start offering engineering courses in mother tongue for the academic session 2021-22, the Ministry of Education said in a press statement Thursday.
The decision, taken in a meeting chaired by Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, is in line with the new National Education Policy (NEP) that calls for education in one’s mother tongue as far as possible. “A seminal decision was made to start technical education, especially engineering courses (in mother tongues) … imparting education in mother tongue will be opened from next academic year.
A few IIT and NIT are being shortlisted for the same,” a press statement from the ministry read. Talking about the decision, a senior official told ThePrint that to begin with, engineering courses in Hindi will start in IIT Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “For now we have zeroed down on IIT BHU to start engineering courses in mother tongue.
More institutes IITs and NITs, will be shortlisted for the purpose in the coming days,” the official said. Sources in the ministry said it was felt that the effort should be started in IIT BHU initially as it has a strong base in Hindi.
Names of other institutes will be decided after meeting with officials from IIT, NIT and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the coming days. Since NEP 2020 was announced, Pokhriyal has been pushing for education in regional languages.
In an interview to ThePrint in August, Pokhriyal said that education in one’s mother tongue should be imparted wherever possible. He has also advocated the same at public forums and seminars that took place after the NEP announcement.
The NEP 2020 advocates for education in one’s mother tongue right from primary class onwards. Last month, the ministry had announced that the Joint Entrance Exam (Mains) will be conducted in more regional languages from 2021.
The exam is currently conducted in Hindi, English and Gujarati. According to the announcement, plans are afoot to offer the exam in “regional languages where entry to state engineering colleges is decided based on an examination conducted in regional language”.
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