This was decided at a high-level review meeting chaired by the Union’s education minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal, on Thursday. The meeting also decided that the National Testing Agency (NTA) will present the syllabus for the competitive exams after evaluating the existing scenario at the school education boards.
Following the meeting, Pokhriyal said on Twitter: “A fundamental decision was also made during the meeting that engineering courses providing education in the mother tongue will open from next academic year. Some IITs and NITs are being shortlisted for it. ”
In October, the NTA had already decided to conduct the JEE-Main in nine regional languages, in addition to Hindi and English starting in 2021. However, the IITs have not yet addressed the issue of whether JEE-Advanced will also be offered. in Languages According to a high-level government source, the ministry of education will approach the IITs to offer JEE-Advanced also in regional languages.
Many IITs and NITs see teaching and study materials in regional languages as a great challenge, and several heads of institutions express concern.
According to an IIT director, “it will be impossible, especially in the short term, to implement this. Then one has to offer all languages as a medium of instruction at IITs, as we have students from all states and it will not be fair to deny even a single student if they want to study in, say, Odia or Telugu. Where will we find so many faculties to teach such a wide range of subjects? In fact, we are now struggling to find teachers even in English! State engineering universities can gradually implement the same by offering courses in the state language. ”
Institutions have also highlighted logistical problems as a bottleneck. “Apart from the availability of teachers to teach in the mother tongue, which will be the main problem, classes will have to be divided by language. The availability of books in these languages will be another problem, ”said a director of a former NIT.
Many school education boards, including national boards such as CBSE and CISCE, have streamlined their exam program due to the Covid-19 situation and consequent academic loss due to school closings since March 2020. The review meeting also decided that the NTA, which carries out the JEE-Main and NEET-UG among others, will come out with the contest agenda. “It has been decided that NTA will consult the school boards on what they have done (with the curriculum) to understand the situation. However, it is unlikely to affect the JEE-Main syllabus, ”said a MoE official.
Pokhriyal has also directed the College Scholarship Commission to ensure that all scholarships and scholarships are disbursed on time. UGC has also been asked to launch a helpline for the same and address all student complaints immediately.
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