The education ministry’s decision to offer BTech in regional languages at some IITs, NITs next year onwards has attracted a lot of flak. In principle the idea to offer higher education in one’s own mother tongue is sound. Studies have shown that students learn better if something is taught in their mother tongue. This sounds right intuitively too.

However, introduction of BTech in regional languages so soon is fraught with challenges. First is availability of faculty. As it is, IITs are not able to fill faculty posts even now. To get qualified faculty able and willing to teach in regional languages will be very difficult because all of them would have gone through higher education in English medium and need to be trained on imparting education in regional languages.
Second is availability of learning resources in regional languages. With difficulty, perhaps, some standard textbooks may be translated. However, students pursuing engineering don’t just rely on standard text books. They depend on reference books, journals and other literature most of which is in English.

A logical extension of higher education is research. Global research is dominated by the use of English. People studying in regional languages will be at a great disadvantage to participate in and contribute to global research. This will also deprive the students of getting trained by faculty with good research exposure.

Even if the above challenges are somehow met, what about the employment prospects of these students. Students go to IITs & NITs to get placed in top notch companies and most of them are in the private sector. Several of them are MNCs. Will they be interested in hiring these engineers?
Because of this the course itself may not attract many takers. IITs & NITs are famed because of the quality of students and if that is diluted the brand itself may take a beating.

Also, India’s dominance in the software industry globally is primarily because of our English proficiency. Indians are able to seamlessly work across borders is because of this strength. Indian professors, doctors, engineers, and scientists have done exceptionally well all over the world and part of the reason for their success is the ease with which they speak, read and write English language.  “English speaking population” is something that we actively use to our advantage while seeking foreign investment. In this era of globalization, where differences are getting blurred introduction of regional languages in higher education appears regressive. . If the Britishers have left us with something useful it is, without doubt, the English Language. It would make little sense to let go of this advantage.

Proponents of the move argue that in countries like China, Japan and Germany, homes to great engineering talent, higher education is mostly in the native tongue. However, it is also a fact that in some of the countries are switching to English. Also, all these countries are homogenous. India, on the other hand, has diverse languages and cultures. English has played the role of a link language for decades now. Switching to regional languages may exacerbate these differences.

While, in principle, the move to impart higher education in regional languages is good, the introduction of such a radical move has to be more gradual and thought through. To start with, the entrance tests can be introduced in regional languages. Simultaneously, faculty and learning resources can be developed gradually in the medium term. Select subjects, where feasible, can be offered in regional languages. Based on experience with such courses a carefully planned out of rollout can follow. At the same time, employment opportunities for such students have to be identified and the number of students to be taken in have to carefully calibrated. Otherwise, we may end up with a number of qualified youngsters without a job and that would be a disaster.