Relevance: GS-2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Phrases: National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, mother tongue, Indian languages in higher education, AICTE Translation Automation AI Tool.

Why in News?

• The call by Home Minister for engineering, law, and medicine to be taught in Indian languages is a well-intentioned one.
• This stand is in sync with one of the focal points of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, i.e., the promotion of Indian languagesin higher education.

New Education Policy:

• The NEP provides for higher education institutions and programs in higher education to use the mother tongue or local language as a medium of instruction, besides offering programs bilingually.
• The rationale behind the call is that 95% of students, who receive primary education in their mother tongue, should not be left out in their pursuit of higher studies.

Efforts in this direction:

• In recent years, substantive measures have been taken to make engineering courses available in Indian languages.
• Effective 2021-22, the AICTE granted approval to 19 engineering colleges in 10 States for having engineering courses in six Indian languages.
• The Council has also developed an “AICTE Translation Automation AI Tool” that translates English online courses into12 Indian languages.
• SWAYAM, an open online courses platform of the Central government, has been offering some popular courses in Indian languages too.
• The import of this is that the goal of covering all sections as far as higher education is concerned should become a reality.

Arguments in favour of imparting education in regional languages:

• Better reception:
  • It has been observed that the human mind is more receptive to communication in the language in which it is accustomed to thinking from childhood.
  • Researches show that the mother tongue is vital in framing the thinking and emotions of people.
  • Learning in one’s own language will help the student express himself/herself better.
• Increase in Gross-Enrolment Ratio (GER):
  • This will help provide quality teaching to more students and thus increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.
• Lowering the dropout rate:
  • Understanding the subject matter would boost the confidence of the student and propel him/her to continue with his/her higher education thus lowering the drop-out rate.
  • Indian physicist and Nobel Laureate, Sir C.V. Raman observed,
    • “We must teach science in our mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become a highbrow activity. It will not be an activity in which all people can participate”.
• Equitable Education culture:
  • Teaching in the mother tongue/ regional language will help in building an equitable education system.
  • The personal and social circumstances of students should in no way be obstacles to realising their full academic potential.
• Preserves culture:
  • Learning in a foreign language also brings a sense of alienation from one’s own culture and heritage.
  • Education in the mother tongue will help the students in getting a better sense of their cultural background. And therefore, helps him/her progress in life his/her roots intact.
• Global practices:
  • Among the G20, most countries have state-of-the-art universities, with teaching being imparted in the dominant language of their people.
  • In South Korea, nearly 70% of the universities teach in Korean, even as they aspire to play a role on the international stage.
  • This trend is also observed in other countries like China, Japan, and Canada (in the majority of French-speaking Quebec Province).

Challenges Ahead:

• Lack of high-quality material in regional languages:
  • One of the biggest bottlenecks for more students to take up higher education in native languages is the lack of high-quality textbooks, especially in technical courses.
• Reliability of translations:
  • Artificial intelligence-powered tools to translate books, academic journals, and videos may cause issues of reliabilities and irregularities with the quality of these translations.
• Proficient teaching staff:
  • Providing technical education in regional languages requires teachers proficient in the vernacular medium along with English.
  • Given the English-medium legacy of higher education in India, attracting and retaining quality teachers who are willing and able to teach in regional languages would be a challenge.
• Past experiences have not yielded results:
  • In Tamil Nadu, for instance, the bid to impart engineering education through the Tamil medium has not created any impact despite the principal political players using language as a political tool.
• Employability:
  • Given the already lamentable employability of college-educated individuals, studying in a regional language could further inhibit job opportunities, sharpening India’s language divide and going against the envisioned goal of instilling confidence in students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Competing with global labour:
  • Delivering technical courses in regional languages may prevent students from competing in global labour and education markets, where fluency in English yields a distinct edge.
  • A lack of opportunities for Indian students at the international level may prove counterproductive to the policy aim of bridging the gap between elites and the rest.

Conclusion:

• While there is no need for haste in making educational materials available in Indian languages, the approach and methodology should be discussed threadbare by policymakers and educationists, without political pressure or interference.
• What should be made obvious is that the use of English, wherever desirable, should be retained, with no aversion shown on the ground that it is a “foreign” language.
• It would not be out of place to highlight issues about standards and the quality of teaching of Indian languages in schools.
• Be it Gujarati or Hindi or even Tamil, students have been found to fail in their public examinations in language papers.
• A holistic approach is warranted and the implications of native-language instruction in an increasingly globalized world need deep deliberation for India to achieve its equity objectives.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Critically analyse the decision of the Government of making mother tongue the medium for higher studies.