Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu Friday said that learning in regional and local languages makes education accessible to all.
Murmu, who launched various projects of the union ministry of education during her two-day tour to Odisha, said that education is a tool for empowerment and there is no doubt that the use of the mother tongue helps in the intellectual development of students.
Learning in the mother tongue develops the creative thinking and analytical skills among students besides providing equal opportunities to urban and rural students, the president said.
“We must ensure that each and every child in our country has access to education at every level. We have to do our best to make education available to all without any discrimination. Language should be an enabling factor and not a hindrance for educating the students,” she said.
Murmu said it has been observed that many students face difficulty in understanding technical education in English. This is the reason why the government has taken steps to provide technical education in regional languages under the National Education Policy 2020.
Earlier technical education in regional languages used to face hurdles due to the non-availability of textbooks in vernacular languages and the introduction of learning in regional and local languages will go a long way towards building a well-educated, aware and vibrant society, Murmu said.
She appreciated All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for its efforts in removing the obstacle faced by students due to the dearth of technical books in vernacular languages.
Launching the education projects, she said “These are commendable steps in the direction of making education accessible to all”.
The projects launched by her included engineering books of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in Odia language, a glossary of technical terms in Odia developed by the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) and e-KUMBH (Knowledge Unleashed in Multiple Bharatiya Languages) portal.
Odia is an ancient language with a distinct literary tradition and rich vocabulary. Therefore there will be no difficulty in getting technical education in the language, Murmu, who hails from Odisha, said.
All Indian languages have more or less the same potential and equal importance has been given to them under the National Education Policy 2020. It has ushered in a new era in the field of Indian languages, she said.
Earlier in the day, the president visited her alma mater Government Girls High School Unit-II, Kuntala Kumari Sabat Adivasi Girls Hostel Unit-II where she had stayed during her school days and the Tapoban High School in the city. She interacted with students, teachers, alumni and inmates of the hostel.
The engineering books released in Odia language were for the first year – nine for degree and 11 for diploma students. The books have been translated by the technical education department in collaboration with the Institute of Odia Studies and Research (IOSR).
The AICTE had on October 18 2022, signed an MoU with IOSR to introduce engineering education in Odia. A total of 64 experts were chosen by the project monitoring unit, comprising senior faculty of Odisha’s popular universities- IIT, IIIT and NIT-R, to translate the books into Odia in February, an official said.
PTI