JOIN USAICTE to bring out textbooks in regional languages
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has begun a mega exercise for writing engineering and other technical programme textbooks in regional languages, amid persistent demands from various quarters.
It has invited proposals from the existing faculties with minimum five years’ experience in teaching at higher educational institutions for writing textbooks in 22 scheduled Indian languages, including Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi.
The higher education regulator will also accept proposals for translation of textbooks available in various technical subjects into English.
Use of mother tongue
This comes almost a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi supported a suggestion for imparting technical education in “mother tongues” in one of his tweets on January 8, 2015, saying it required “deeper consideration” to give impetus to “youth-led development of the country”.
“Most European countries offer all education, including technical education, in local languages. There have been demands from various quarters to promote use of regional languages in technical education in India too, as it will benefit those hailing from rural areas,” an AICTE official told Deccan Herald.
The use of mother tongue in teaching at various levels of education has been a long-standing demand from different sections of the society. Hindi- speaking states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have batted for it on many of occasions in the past.
RSS affiliates like the Bharatiya Shikshan Manch and the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti have also been demanding the use of mother tongue for teaching-learning in schools and colleges.
“Since technical education is dominated by English language, the council has invited proposals for writing and translation of technical books in all 22 scheduled languages to create a knowledge base in these languages. Each of the authors or translators will be paid Rs 50,000 for their contribution,” the AICTE official said.
The council will accept proposals for writing and translation of at least 50 textbooks of engineering and other technical programmes every year.
“While only one author per institution per year will be selected for writing the project, a list of experts will be prepared in the beginning of every year to continue the programme,” the official said.