After introducing engineering courses in eight regional languages from the 2021-22 academic year in a few institutes, the government is planning to run similar pilot programmes for courses like management, philosophy and hotel management.
This, according to government sources, is to improve access to higher education for students who have not studied in English-medium schools.
This is part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation. NEP 2020 has called for special focus on regional languages and mother tongue-led education.
"Discussions are underway to finalise the timeline for the pilot project. A handful of higher educational institutions will be chosen for this process. Based on the response received from the students and professors, the language-led courses will become a permanent feature," said a government official.
To enable this, translation software and professors specialised in these languages would be hired. Books will be translated into regional languages using technology.
Once the translation tool is available, the books can be translated instantly to the regional languages being considered.
On July 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced there are 14 engineering colleges in eight states that will offer courses in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali.
What's next?
In July 2020, the Union Cabinet headed by PM Modi gave its nod to the National Education Policy. Consequently, the Human Resource Development Ministry was renamed the Ministry of Education. This was a policy launched 34 years after the old policy.
The ministry has identified 181 tasks, which will have to be completed under NEP 2020. Regional language-led education in colleges/universities is a part of the task list.
While the central government has given the go-ahead for courses in regional languages, it will be the responsibility of the states to implement it at the educational institutes.
This will involve monitoring the progress, on a monthly basis, of the academic content availability in the respective languages and availability of teachers.
"We have no issues about the policy per se. But hiring professors who can teach a management concept in say Marathi or Tamil is not an easy task. There should either be a centralised system of recruitment or additional incentives to encourage qualified professionals to apply," said the deputy dean at a management institute in Delhi.
By December 2021, the central government will draw out a roadmap for implementation with deadlines for regional language courses in each educational stream.
It is expected that there will be a phase-wise implementation across educational streams depending on the demand among students and success rates at the pilot projects.