oppn parties Bid To Improve Learning Outcomes And Reduce Knowledge Gaps

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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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. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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.