Visakhapatnam, July 29, 2021: Consequent on its decision of permitting engineering education in regional languages, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) gave its consent for the NRI Institute of Technology, a private autonomous engineering college in Krishna district, to introduce the programme in Telugu.
It is the only institution in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to get the nod for BTech Telugu medium with a 60-student intake into the computer science engineering stream.
In all, the AICTE allowed 14 engineering colleges across the country to offer the engineering programmes in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and other native languages from the 2021-22 academic year on a pilot basis.
The move is expected to provide a level playing field for the students, particularly from the rural and tribal areas who have studied in their native languages since childhood.
One of the major recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020 is to promote regional languages in education.
While the NEET exam is currently being conducted in 11 languages, the Union Ministry of Education is holding the JEE (Main) in 13 languages.
Speaking to TOI, principal, NRI Institute of Technology, Dr C Naga Bhaskar, said that the AICTE has chosen the 14 autonomous and NAAC- and NBA-accredited colleges to give permission to offer engineering courses in native languages.
Students to have option of Telugu, Eng for exams
“The move would definitely improve the grasp, creativity, and comprehension levels of the students. Several advanced countries like Japan, Germany and China impart education in their mother tongue. Students would be given the option of writing exams in Telugu or English. The Board of Studies of our college will finalise the syllabus and other components of the programme,” said Dr Bhaskar.
Dr Bhaskar said that it is generally believed that the English medium students would be in an advantageous position compared to their Telugu counterparts. “But, several exams like NEET, JEE and UPSP are currently being conducted in various regional languages. It may be further extended to exams like the engineering services examination in the coming years. This would give an impetus to professional education in local languages,” said Dr Bhaskar.
In a recent Facebook post titled ‘Engineering courses in mother language – A step in the right direction’, posted in 11 Indian languages Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu lauded the move of 14 engineering colleges across eight states to offer engineering courses in regional language. “It is my desire to see the day when all vocational and professional courses like engineering, medicine and law are taught in mother languages,” said the Vice-President in the post according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
