IIT Jodhpur has become the first premier tech school to offer the popular BTech course in Hindi along with English.
On Tuesday, the education ministry posted on X: “The ministry of education is pleased to share that @iitjodhpur will now offer BTech first-year course in both Hindi and English, beginning this academic year. This initiative is designed to ensure all students can learn effectively in the language they are most comfortable with. Both sections will be taught by the same instructors, maintaining consistency and quality. This is a significant step towards fostering a more inclusive and supportive educational environment at IIT Jodhpur.”
Several academics welcomed the idea of BTech in Hindi but expressed concern about the quality of teaching and learning because of the lack of study material in Hindi and a trained faculty to teach in the language.
For the last four years, the MoE has been asking the technical institutions under its administrative control to start undergraduate engineering courses in Hindi and other Indian languages. The National Education Policy (NEP) has emphasised on teaching of all courses in Indian languages.
A professor at Netaji Subash University of Technology said the idea of teaching a technical subject in Hindi and Indian languages was welcome but without the required materials and trained faculty members, such courses may not attract students.
“Engineering students in IITs follow foreign publishers’ books. To my knowledge, there are no such books in Hindi or any Indian languages. The faculty members have not been trained to teach in Indian languages. They teach in English. It is not possible for them to teach in Indian languages without training,” said the professor.
Rajeev Kumar, a former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said IITs should make their own study material in Hindi.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which approves tech colleges to run engineering programmes, has allowed its approved institutions to offer BTech in 11 Indian languages, including Hindi.
