“So far, a total of 20 colleges in six languages across ten states have been approved by the council to provide engineering education in regional languages,” says AICTE President Anil Sahasrabuddhe.
“Out of all the 20 colleges that got AICTE approval, most of the colleges have chosen Hindi. It is followed by Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali,” says Sahasrabuddhe. Apart from these, Malayalam, Gujarati, Assamese, Oriya and Punjabi languages have also been approved by AICTE for engineering courses.
The move to provide technical education in the mother tongue is aimed at instilling confidence in students who have studied from schools located in remote areas and instilling confidence among students with weak English.
new challenges
Engineering colleges starting admissions for BTech program in regional languages from this academic year are not getting an encouraging response. For example, the college which has started admission for B.Tech in Computer Science in Hindi has few students. The college with an admission capacity of 120 seats has received only 32 applicants. According to a college source, “Students are quite apprehensive about their future career prospects after doing B.Tech in Computer Science in the regional language.”
Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, which offers B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering in Tamil, is also facing a shortage of applicants. “So far only 24 admissions have been confirmed. Another round of counseling is being conducted to fill the remaining seats,” says V Venkatachalam, principal.
On the indifferent response to engineering education in the mother tongue, Venkatachalam argues that the lack of awareness is a major challenge. “Most of the students are not aware of the availability of engineering education in the regional language, so they are applying for admission. Awareness campaign is needed to promote engineering education. Gradually they will come to know and they will come forward to enter.”
Erode Sengunther Engineering College shortlists candidates for counseling on the basis of their academic performance in class XII or equivalent.
List of colleges offering engineering in regional languages
- Poornima Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajasthan: Hindi
- Poornima College of Engineering, Rajasthan: Hindi
- Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Uttarakhand: Hindi
- Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology, Uttar Pradesh: Hindi
- Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Uttar Pradesh: Hindi
- PSIT-Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology, Uttar Pradesh: Hindi
- GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Uttar Pradesh: Hindi
- IPS Academy, Institute of Engineering and Science, Madhya Pradesh : Hindi
- JC Bose University of Science and Technology, Faridabad: Hindi
- Deen Bandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Sonepat: Hindi
- Guru Jambeshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar : Hindi
- Cambridge Institute of Technology, Bangalore: Kannada
- BLDE College of Engineering, Vijayapura : Kannada
- SJC Institute of Technology, Chikkaballapur : Kannada
- Coorg Institute of Technology, Ponnampet : Kannada
- Techniques Polytechnic Institute of Technology, West Bengal: Bengali
- NRI Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh: Telugu
- Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Maharashtra: Marathi
- Rathinam Technical Complex, Tamil Nadu : Tamil
- Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, Tamil Nadu : Tamil
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