Provide study material in Indian languages digitally: Govt to institutions

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The Centre has directed schools and higher education institutions to provide study material for all courses in Indian languages digitally within the next three years, officials said on Friday.

The decision is aimed at providing students the opportunity to study in their own language.

"The government has directed all school and higher education regulators like UGC, AICTE, NCERT, NIOS, IGNOU and heads of INIs like IITs, CUs and NITs to make study material in Indian languages available for all courses in the next three years.

"UGC, AICTE and the Department of School Education have also been asked to take up the issue with regard to state schools and universities," the Ministry of Education (MoE) said in a statement.

"The above directions have emerged from the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) for promoting multilingualism in education at every level, so that students get the opportunity to study in their own language, and can have better learning outcomes," it said.

Studying in one's own language can provide a student the natural space to think innovatively without any language barrier, it added.

According to the MoE, NEP 2020 strongly conveys the idea that multilingual nature of Bharat is its huge asset and strength which needs to be utilised efficiently for its socio-cultural, economic and educational development.

"Content creation in local languages will boost this multilingual asset and pave way for its better contribution to 'Viksit Bharat' to make our country as developed nation by 2047.

"The government has already been working in this direction during the past two years, with translation of Engineering, Medical, Law, UG, PG and Skill books being done through the Anuvadini AI based App," the ministry said.

"These books are available on the ekumbh portal. In the school education ecosystem also study material is available in multiple Indian languages including over 30 languages on DIKSHA. Competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CUET are being held in 13 Indian languages," it said.