New Delhi (The Hawk): The higher education system will undergo a nationwide transformation, particularly in undergraduate programmes where language will no longer be an obstacle. These programmes include BA, B.Com, and B.Sc.
Students will be able to receive their diplomas in their native tongue.
The course books will soon be accessible in a variety of languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu.
In response to a request from the Union Ministry of Education, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is working with publishers to translate textbooks into a number of Indian languages.
Some of the prominent publications taking part in the process include Pearson India, Narosa Publishers, Viva Books, S. Chand Publishers, Vikas Publishing, New Age Publishers, Mahavir Publications, Universities Press, and Taxmann Publications.
The high-level meeting was also attended by representatives from Elsevier, Orient Blackswan, and Oxford University Press.
The UGC recently discussed the publication of undergraduate English textbooks in Indian languages with representatives of Wiley India, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India, and McGraw Hill, India.
The most popular textbooks for UG programmes in higher education institutions across the nation are being translated into the 12 Indian languages by UGC as part of NEP 2020.
According to UGC Chairman Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar, the Commission would serve as a central organisation to assist publishers in finding textbooks, translation resources, and editing specialists so that the books may be made accessible in the digital format.
He continued by saying that the Commission will move forward in two ways, identifying and translating popular textbooks for the programmes while also encouraging Indian authors to develop textbooks for non-technical areas in Indian languages.
The Commission hopes to get multiple books translated within six to twelve months, for which it has formed an apex committee to build a road map and work towards the goal, according to Kumar, who was all praise for the publishers who participated in the mission.
The translation of current textbooks will be the main focus, according to Kumar, and it will eventually be expanded to postgraduate programmes.
(Inputs from Agencies)
