Odia students pursuing engineering courses can now read their course books in mother tongue as President Droupadi Murmu on Friday launched engineering books of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in Odia language at a special programme in Jaydev Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.
Murmu unveiled various projects of the Union Ministry of Education including 20 engineering books for BTech and diploma engineering courses translated into Odia on second day of her visit to the State. She also launched a glossary of technical terms in Odia language developed by Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) and e-KUMBH (Knowledge Unleashed in Multiple Bharatiya Languages) portal.
Odisha Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan were present at the launching ceremony that coincided with the National Education Day.
Speaking on the occasion, the President said, “There is no doubt that mother tongue helps intellectual development in students."
She expressed confidence that learning in mother tongue would develop creative thinking and analytical skills among students and it would also provide equal opportunities to urban and rural students. She noted that earlier technical education in regional languages used to face hurdles due to non-availability of textbooks in vernacular languages. She appreciated AICTE for its efforts in removing this hurdle.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said, “The Commission for Scientific & Technical Terminology (CSTT) has translated thousands of technical terms from English to Odia. In the coming days, all the technical terms in English will be available in all the Indian languages.”
“We have just started in first and witnessing enthusiasm in students. Therefore, we will translate the technical terms in the second year, third year and fourth year. The digital version of this book will be made available freely on e-Kumbh Portal,” he added.
Kumar further said that “We have translated the books in 12 Indian languages. In coming days, we will look for other languages because we have technology and translation tools. We will translate the books into as much Indian languages as we can.”