As there have been few takers for studying engineering in regional languages — just 20.7% of the reserved seats have been filled — the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) plans to conduct awareness campaigns in schools to attract more students in the 2022-23 academic session.
To align with the National Education Policy 2020 that proposes introducing regional languages as a medium of instruction, the AICTE in 2021 granted permission to 19 technical colleges to offer select engineering courses in regional languages. Of these, 10 chose Hindi and the rest provided the option of Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Only 255 of the available 1,230 seats for courses in regional languages have been filled, according to AICTE data. Of the 840 seats allotted for courses in Hindi, 116 were filled. Just 50 out of the 120 seats for courses in Tamil, 16 out of 60 seats reserved in Bengali, and 13 out of 60 seats available for Telugu have been filled.
While all 60 seats allocated for technical courses in Marathi were filled, there were no admissions in the 90 seats available for courses in Kannada.
The council is planning to take several steps to create awareness about these courses ahead of the new academic session, AICTE chairperson Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe said.
{{/usCountry}}The council is planning to take several steps to create awareness about these courses ahead of the new academic session, AICTE chairperson Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe said.
{{/usCountry}}“We did expect low admissions in regional language courses in the first year. There are two reasons behind this low enrolment,” Sahasrabudhe said. “First, lack of awareness about these courses among students and parents, and second, the hesitancy and fear among them regarding studying engineering in regional languages. We need to address these issues.”
“We will soon speak to the states imparting school education in regional languages and ask them to inform students about these courses,” he said. “We will also conduct webinars and seminars in schools to make students familiar with the existence of these courses in their states.”
AICTE will send translated study material to all its affiliated colleges free of cost, Sahasrabudhe said .
“A lot of people don’t know that study material for engineering courses is also available in regional languages now. We need these books in the libraries of all engineering colleges so that the students know about them.This will help in creating awareness through word of mouth,” he said. “These translated books will also be helpful for the students pursuing courses in English, but are not very comfortable with the language.”
The council has translated all books for first-year students in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. The translation of other books is also going on.
Officials at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering in Pune, which not only managed to fill all the 60 seats, but also had to introduce an additional eight seats, said they took several steps to create awareness.
“We prepared posters and pamphlets about these courses and distributed them at the entrance exam centres for engineering. We started getting queries from parents and students. We arranged counselling sessions for them as well,” said Nilkanth B. Chopade, the deputy director of the college.
“This shows that if the college makes some effort to create awareness, there are takers,” Sahasrabudhe said. “We will encourage other colleges to follow.”