Adopting regional language in technical education is 'a necessary long-term goal': IIT Kharagpur Director

This requires teachers proficient in undertaking classes in the vernacular medium along with English, textbooks and reference materials in regional languages, besides technological assistance such as audio translation aids like those used in Indian Parliament, Prof Tewari said.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur Director Professor V K Tewari has called for forming a policy framework for regional language education not only at the school level but also in technical institutes so that the language does not become a barrier to learning. While lauding the Ministry of Education's decision to provide the option to students study technical courses in their mother tongue from next year, Professor Tiwari said, adopting regional language in technical education is "a necessary long-term goal".

This requires teachers proficient in undertaking classes in the vernacular medium along with English, textbooks and reference materials in regional languages, besides technological assistance such as audio translation aids like those used in Indian Parliament, Prof Tewari said.

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, he said adding that in his four decades at IIT Kharagpur, initially as a student and later as a faculty member, teaching and learning has entirely been in English.

"The practice, I will say, continues regardless of the first language of the students and difficulties at their end in adopting to English as the primary communication language, thus disrupting the process of learning. But when explained in regional languages, especially mother tongue, grabbing the concepts or expression of the ideas by the students becomes fairly easy," Prof V K Tewari said.

This can be observed frequently in practical classes and labs where lab instructors often form a close relationship with students and communicate with them in the languages known by them and even some teachers adopt this approach outside the classroom, the academician said.

"Now it is to be contemplated how such practice can be institutionalised at IITs and NITs with a regionally diverse student population," Prof Tewari said.

" the challenge of language as a barrier to the learning process needs to be critically reviewed. This would lead to the development of a policy framework for regional language education not only at schools but in higher education including technical education," he further added.

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