IIT Kanpur sets up centre to overcome language barrier among students

The centre will ensure availability of the course content in regional languages to overcome the challenge of restricted job opportunities at the end of an academic programme.  

The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) has established a centre aimed at a seamless integration of students from Hindi and Other Indian Languages (OILs) background.   

Students with Indian languages background face challenges such as social integration with the peers. They are also unable to take full advantage of the opportunities of the academic and personal growth because of the language barrier. Keeping such things in mind, the centre has been set up for students with a non-English medium background. The Shivani Centre for the nurture and re-integration of Hindi and other Indian languages will ensure availability of the course content in regional languages to overcome the challenge of restricted job opportunities at the end of the academic programme. 

Shivani centre to focus on self-expression, personal growth 

One of the objectives of the Shivani Centre is to focus on providing students with opportunities for self-expression and personal growth, guarding them against feelings of exclusion and isolation while allowing them to gradually integrate with socio-academic milieu of the institute. The centre will try to address these issues not only at the institute level but also in the context of higher education in the country in general by facilitating the creation of academic resources (STEM content, textbooks, references, digital tools) in languages other than English.  

The centre is being established with a grant of $1 million from Micky and Vinita Charitable Fund. Muktesh (Micky) Pant (BT/CH/76) is setting up the centre in the memory of his late motherGaura Pant better known as Shivani.  

Centre expected to create paradigm shift in educational practices: IITK Director 

Prof Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, said: “It has been acknowledged that Indian languages are important for educational and cultural development as they strengthen equity in education. Students with Indian languages background face challenges in navigating the English language based course content and often face academic and social exclusion as a result. The Shivani centre is expected to bring about a paradigm shift in the educational practices on the campus of IIT Kanpur. It will ensure seamless integration of students of Hindi and OILs background at the institute and will fulfill the objectives laid out in National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. 

The project will be monitored on a sustained basis till it achieves self-sustenance and goes into the auto-pilot mode. 

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