The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will start offering engineering courses in mother tongue from next academic year, according to Education Ministry officials. The decision was taken at a high-level review meeting chaired by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday.
"A seminal decision was made to start technical education, especially engineering courses, imparting education in mother tongue (and this) will be opened from next academic year. A few IITs and NITs are being shortlisted for the same," a senior ministry official said.
In the meeting, it was also decided that the National Testing Agency (NTA) will come out with the syllabus for competitive examinations after assessing the existing scenario of school education boards.
"The University Grants Commission has also been directed to ensure all scholarships, fellowships are disbursed in time and to start a helpline for the same and address all grievances of the students immediately," the official said.
The NTA had last month announced its decision to conduct the JEE (Main) in nine regional languages, apart from Hindi and English from 2021.
However, the IITs are yet to take up the matter so far on whether the JEE (Advanced) will also be offered in regional language.
The need to assess the school education scenario before coming out with syllabus arises because many boards, including national boards like CBSE and ICSE, have rationalised their exam syllabus due to the COVID-19 situation and subsequent academic loss due to schools being closed since March.
The decision to offer courses to students in their mother tongue is being mulled at a time when in recent years students especially from south Indian states have protested against decisions to hold entrance exams only in Hindi and English. The issue had come to the forefront with the introduction of NEET in 2016.