Medium of instruction in higher education to prioritise Indian languages: Pradhan
Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday (June 6, 2025) said that the medium of instruction in the coming years would primarily be in Indian and local languages.
Mr. Pradhan was chairing a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament for the Ministry of Education on the theme of 'Promotion of Education in Bharatiya Bhasha in Higher Education' in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
While addressing the meeting, Mr. Pradhan highlighted the Ministry's efforts in promoting mother tongue education and stressed the importance of integrating 'Bharatiya Bhashas' or Indian languages in both school and higher education.
He appreciated the initiatives taken by higher education institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), for introducing courses in regional languages, including technical subjects such as engineering. 'The priority remains to provide books in Indian languages,' he said.
Emphasising the role of technology, Mr. Pradhan noted the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in translating content to help students, particularly those from rural or economically weaker backgrounds, understand academic material in their preferred languages. He also mentioned that the Ministry has prepared an educational resource — Bhasha Sangam — which enables students to learn 100 sentences in 22 languages.
School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar informed the committee that 1,369 mother tongues have been identified in the country, which have been classified into 121 languages. Of these, 22 are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, while 99 other languages, though unrecognised, are spoken by more than 10,000 people.
Mr. Kumar also highlighted the emphasis on multilingualism in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and noted that the recently formulated National Curriculum Framework for School Education has been developed with multilingualism at its core.
University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Dr. Vineet Joshi briefed the committee on recent policy decisions and initiatives of the Department of Higher Education. He provided updates on AI-based translation tools such as Anuvadini and UDAAN, and shared information regarding the constitution of the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti and the implementation of the Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak Pariyojna as announced in the Union Budget 2025.
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