JOIN USRegional languages trump English in competitive exams: Report
The number of students opting to write competitive exams in regional languages like Hindi, Marathi and Odia has risen above English between 2017 and 2020.
Since the government allowed the national competitive exam for medical admissions across the country to be conducted in regional languages in 2017, a growing number of students have opted to take the exam in their local languages, a report by Business Standard said.
The number of candidates opting to write the exam in English increased by 38.4 per cent between 2017 and 2020, the report said. In contrast, candidates appearing to write the exam in Hindi jumped 69.4 per cent during this period. Meanwhile, Marathi and Odia saw even higher growth rates, with 539.9 and 81.9 per cent rise in candidates appearing to write exams in those languages respectively.
Even in the Union Public Service Commission, the number of candidates appearing to write the exams in Hindi saw a marginal rise from 64.7 per cent in 2017 to 65.2 per cent in 2019, the report said.
Hindi has been at the centre of a political row since Home Minister Amit Shah called for its propagation last week.
Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the official language and this will definitely increase the importance of Hindi.
He said unless Hindi is made flexible by accepting words from other local languages, it will not be propagated.
His comments caused a major stir, with major political parties — both allies and opponents of the BJP — and some celebrities issuing comments opposing Shah's alleged favouritism towards the language.
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