Suryakant Jena

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Monday signed an agreement with the Institute of Odia Study and Research (IOSR) for introducing Engineering education in Odia language. The collaboration is aimed at developing the study materials for engineering education in Odia language.

Attending the MoU signing between AICTE and IOSR today, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "Engineering study in local language which is one of the biggest recommendations of the National Education Policy(NEP)-2020 will open gates for innovation and large scale employability."

"There should not be any misconception that studying in mother tongue gives us disadvantage. All the developed countries, be it Japan, China, Italy, Germany, promote and use their local language only and they are highly developed," said the Union Minister.

As per sources, IOSR and AICTE will take up the project in philanthropic mode. Both the institutes will work together and develop needed materials for study of engineering in Odia language.

Union Education Minister Pradhan also proposed for setting up a Center of Excellence for Foreign Languages in Bhubaneswar. “Such a center will be able to generate a lot of employment for our youths,” said the minister.

He further stressed on using language as a catalyst for transformation and education for employment. “We need to prepare a roadmap for the coming 15 years in the run up to the completion of 100 years of Odisha as the first linguistic State of India and for this four things are required to be taken care of – nutrition, language, education and employment," Pradhan said.

It may be mentioned that the AICTE had recently approved engineering colleges across Odisha to offer select BTech courses in regional languages from the upcoming new academic year 2022.

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