Engineering in Mother Tongue to be an Instrument to Empower Youth: Education Minister

“Engineering education in local languages and mother tongue to be an instrument of empowerment,” he Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan at the valedictory session of the 36th India Engineering Congress (IEI).

Pradhan highlighted that engineering education should not be restricted to awarding of degrees. “We must collectively work towards removing language barriers in the learning process and building the capacity of our engineering community,” he said.

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Teaching engineering in local languages and mother tongue could act as an instrument of empowering the youth, said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at the valedictory session of the 36th India Engineering Congress (IEI) on Monday. He further said that introduction of engineering education in local languages is in line with the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and will further strengthen the country’s engineering prowess.

The Minister stated that with the implementation of the visionary NEP 2020, skills education will be integrated into education thus taking a multidisciplinary approach, and making skilling and apprenticeship a part of the main curriculum to prepare the youth for the 21st century.

He further added that Indians have a scientific temper and robust engineering capabilities and “our civilisational history has scientific evidence of structural engineering, water management, maritime engineering, etc.”

He urged that IEI must endeavour to further strengthen India’s engineering capacity by innovating, knowledge sharing by its members, and creating new paradigms of employability and entrepreneurship.

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As many as 20 engineering colleges under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have already introduced courses in regional languages. In July this year, the AICTE granted permission to 14 colleges to offer select engineering courses in regional languages, and later on November, 6 more were added to the list. The colleges are offering courses in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu in technical education. AICTE has said that more languages will be added in due course of time.

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