In a decision aimed at providing students with the opportunity to study in their own language, the Government of India has decided that study material for all courses under school and higher education will be made available digitally in Indian languages included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. In an order issued by the Ministry of Education today, 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 above directions emerge from the recommendations of the National Education Policy 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. Studying in ones own language can provide a student the natural space to think innovatively without any language barrier. The NEP-2020 strongly conveys the idea that multilingual nature of Bharat is its huge asset and strength which needs to be utilized efficiently for the socio-cultural, economic and educational development of the Nation.
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. These books are available on the ekumbh portal. In 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.