NEW DELHI: The Centre will conduct a two-day conference to explore ways to use technology for mainstreaming Indian languages in the education sector and to create a “Bharatiya language ecosystem” in the country, officials said on Thursday.
The “Technology and Bharatiya Bhasha Summit” has been organised by the union ministries of education and skill development and entrepreneurship on September 30 and October 1 in Delhi in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that lays great emphasis on using both technology and Indian languages in education.
According education ministry officials, the summit will be attended by over 1,000 academics, researchers, edu-tech companies, start-ups, and policy makers. The summit will cover three broad topics– technology for Indian languages, technology in Indian languages and technology through Indian languages.
“A lot of work is required for the mainstreaming of Indian languages. It includes using Indian languages in writing codes and programmes, developing core standards for technology for their universal acceptance, web standardization for Indian languages and developing mobile apps in Indian languages,” said Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairperson of the education ministry’s Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, one of the organisers.
“While many countries, including China and Japan, have operating systems and codes and programmes in their native languages, India still uses English for all this. We also need to create such an ecosystem for Indian languages now,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“While many countries, including China and Japan, have operating systems and codes and programmes in their native languages, India still uses English for all this. We also need to create such an ecosystem for Indian languages now,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Shastry said a five-year roadmap will be released at the end of the summit for the use of technology to enhance the access of educational opportunities by making it available in Indian languages.
“The summit aims at leveraging technology for smooth transition from the present language ecosystem to the Bharatiya language ecosystem,” he said
The government has taken several steps to promote Indian languages in educational institutions, including introduction of technical and professional courses in these languages in accordance with the NEP 2020. The policy also emphasises the use of mother tongue or regional or Indian languages as the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, and preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, a senior education ministry official said.
“We will also discuss how to promote and use Indian languages across all the public and private domains through technological interventions. Sessions will also be conducted on understanding the current challenges of technology in mainstreaming Indian languages,” the official, who asked not ti be identified, added.