AICTE to college teachers: Talk to students in local language

To help students from Kannada medium background in engineering courses to understand the concepts better, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has advised technical educational institutions that the teachers should communicate with students in the local language in the classroom.

In a recent circular, AICTE said, “Indian regional languages serve as a means of communication for millions of people who may not be fluent in other languages. Education and learning in one’s mother tongue has proven benefits. Children tend to grasp concepts better when taught in a language they understand well.”

It says, “Teaching courses in Indian languages will ensure unbiased education and will be culturally and academically inclusive too. This will promote fairness in our education system, bringing all students at par. This student-centric approach will lead to easy information sharing between teachers & students and even among peers. Accordingly, you are requested to encourage faculty members of your institutions to communicate with students in local
language.”

Responding positively to this move, authorities at the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, said that they will communicate the same to the affiliate institutions for implementation.

Vidyashankar S, vice chancellor of VTU, said, “It will definitely help students from Kannada background. Communication means clearing doubts, explaining concepts in Kannada and teachers have nothing to lose.”

He said VTU will introduce bi-lingual question papers from the 2024 batch.

“Recently, we received another communication from AICTE asking to set bi-lingual question papers. This will be implemented for the batch taking admissions 2024 onwards,” he said. 

However, Vidyashankar clarified that students will not be allowed to write the exams in the regional language.

“The bi-lingual question paper is only for reference and to clear their doubts, if any. Students will not be allowed to write answers in the regional language as the medium of instruction is English,” he added.