oppn parties Bid To Improve Learning Outcomes And Reduce Knowledge Gaps

News Snippets

  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
Devendra Fadnavis to be the next chief minister of Maharashtra after Eknath Shinde agrees to join the government as deputy CM
oppn parties
Bid To Improve Learning Outcomes And Reduce Knowledge Gaps

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-01-19 16:20:54

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

On Friday, the Union education ministry issued a statement that the government has directed all schools and higher education institutions to provide study material for every course in Indian languages digitally within the next three years. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, had envisioned that "steps shall be taken towards developing high-quality higher education institutions both public and private that have medium of instruction in local/Indian languages or bilingually". The Centre's directive is a step in that direction. The aim is to provide students with the opportunity to study in their own language.

In an order issued on Friday, the education ministry directed all school and higher education regulators such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Council of Educational Research and Training, National Institute of Open Schooling, Indira Gandhi National Open University, and heads of Institutes of National Importance, Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institute Of Technology, and other Central Universities to make study material in Indian languages available for all courses in the next three years.

Unesco has said that 'research shows that education in the mother tongue is a key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance'. It also said that 'this is crucial.....to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension'. In a bid to avoid knowledge gaps and improve understanding of subject matter, the NEP 2020 had laid stress on developing Indian language or bilingual medium of instruction in higher education institutions. This has now been extended to schools too, which is welcome.

But the problem will be in finding teachers who can explain in the Indian language the student is comfortable with as most schools, at least in urban areas, and higher education institutions will have students from all corners of India many of whom will have different mother tongues. Even if study material is made available to students in Indian languages, it will largely be restricted to self-study with little recourse to guidance in that language from teachers. Hence, along with digital delivery of study material, students must be provided with digital channels in Indian languages to clear their doubts.