Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 22 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated here today that Government headed by Narendra Modi is promoting Science Education in Indian languages and the process has already been initiated.
Addressing the ‘Curtain Raiser Programme’ of “Bharat Bharti Bhasha Mahotsav”, commemorating the International Mother Tongue Day, the Minister said some of the Technical and Engineering Colleges have already initiated use of textbooks and scientific textbooks in Hindi and other Indian languages. The issue of concern is only to ensure optimum and proper translation from the valid textbooks in English language because in case the translation does not carry the real essence, this may lead to putting the candidate at a disadvantage compared to his peer who takes a competitive examination in English language.
Dwelling on the importance of International Mother Tongue Day, the Minister observed that it has been an accepted fact that a human being’s expression comes forth most spontaneously and candidly in his mother tongue only and therefore there is no ideal substitute to the mother tongue. However, over the years, following centuries of colonial rule, much of the education literature got tilted towards the English language and the Indian languages did not receive the deserved attention, he said.
The International Mother Tongue Day, said the Minister has a special significance from Indian subcontinent because it was inspired by sequence of events that followed an agitation by Dhaka University students in 1952 who were protesting against inadequate and protection according to their mother tongue Bangla by the government of Pakistan since Bangladesh was at that time a part of Pakistan and known as East Pakistan. It was later after a long deliberation that UNESCO decided to observe International Mother Tongue Day every year.
Expressing concern over the disappearance of certain languages and scripts, Dr Jitendra Singh said there are about 6900 languages 5900 spoken all over the world but the irony is that nearly 90% of these are spoken by less than 1 lakh people.
Referring to the National Education Policy-2020, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the visionary policy encourages the use of mother tongue in schools and colleges and states have starting implementing the same. The Minister said, promotion of science education in mother tongue has the potential to bring about the best of talents to the fore.
Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that Vigyan Prasar has commenced an ambitious programme in this direction, Project Vigyan Basha, to communicate science in various Indian languages. He said, besides Sanskrit, they have begun work in Urdu, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Nepali and Assamese. The Minister also directed them to speed up this activity and commence activities on all the Indian languages under the eighth schedule of the constitution.
The event was organized by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr M Ravichandran, former Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Prof (Dr) Girishwar Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Indira Murthi and others attended the virtual event.
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