Technical education and mother tongue
Vijay Garg
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) took the initiative to teach engineering in eight Indian languages including Hindi along with English and this was approved by the government.
Apart from English, other languages are Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Gujarati. It should also be regretted that why this work had not been done so far.
There are many reasons for this, one of which is the unavailability of technical education books in languages other than English. The scheme of education in mother tongue has got a boost in the new education policy of the present government. A little late, but this initiative is a positive initiative, because it is relatively easier to get education in the mother tongue.
Language is the only means of exchange of ideas. Naturally man acquires his mother tongue first. After learning the mother tongue for any person, the process of acquisition in that language is relatively easier than in other languages.
When we learn things in the mother tongue, it is primary for us, because our brain does not have to go through a translation process for this. Conversely, when we receive ideas in our secondary or tertiary language other than the mother tongue, we first convert it into our mother tongue and then accept it. This is the reason why the brain has maximum receptivity in the mother tongue.
Efforts have now started to make engineering education in eight regional languages, which are planned to be expanded to other 11 Indian languages of the Eighth Schedule, but this is a very small part of Indian higher education. The entire education of medical science is done in English. All the management courses under the Indian Institute of Management are also conducted in English. English is the only medium of instruction in reputed law institutes of the country established for legal education.
Apart from these popular courses, this is also the language of courses like Hotel Management, Biotechnology, Fashion Designing. The unfavorable medium of education has been a major problem which AICTE has taken initiative to overcome and the government has given its support to it.
We should demand from our governments that apart from engineering, courses should be conducted in major regional languages including Hindi so that youth should not feel compulsion of language before choosing any kind of technical and any other education field.
(The author is a Retired Principal based at Malout Punjab)
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