Ronita Torcato
Union Minister of State for Education Dr Subhas Sarkar and Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, Dr. Chandrakant Patil today released All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) books for diploma and under-graduate engineering courses in the Marathi language at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus. The books were also distributed to a dozen heads of various educational institutions and twelve students.
Vice-Chancellors, coordinators, translators and reviewers from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University at Lonere, Maharashtra, who were associated with AICTE in the process of translation, were felicitated on the occasion.
Dr. Sarkar commended AICTE for taking the initiative to make engineering books available in Indian languages in keeping with the National Education Policy 2020.
“Language is much more than just a tool of communication. It is an expression of culture, society, beliefs, and traditions.” Giving priority to local languages in the NEP is proof of the government’s commitment to all regional languages, he said.
He congratulated universities in Maharashtra for,” taking the requisite steps for understaking translationand other related activities.”
Technologically advanced countries like France, Germany, and South Korea among others have demonstrated that global standards can be achieved in the mother tongue,he said.
NEP 2020 envisages the over all development of students; this includes imparting education in Indian languages for “ease of understanding and encouraging students to conduct research, ” the Union Minister said,pointing out that in accordance with the vision of NEP, “technical education has been enhanced by incorporating the study of human values.”
UGC and AICTE Chairman Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar noted that Jagadish Chandra Bose was admitted into a Bengali medium school by his father . “You will find that in the countries where Nobel prizes are won, education from school to PhD is provided in vernacular languages”, he claimed.
It must be mentioned that in vernacular school, the renowned physicist and plant physiologist’s classmates belonged to diverse communities and religions. And that his father subsequently enrolled him at St Xavier’s School in Calcutta where the Jesuit priest, Father Eugene Lafont helped him develop interest in the natural sciences.
Bose was the first Indian to speak to a full house learned European audience on scientific advances at a 1896 conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In Liverpool. He was also the first Indian scientist to become a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Also read: AICTE recommends open book exams
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