AICTE orders all question papers of technical courses to be bilingual; VTU takes objection

In the past three years, no student has enrolled for engineering courses in Kannada medium

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has ordered all the technical universities in the country to prepare bilingual question papers, in English and the local language. 

“In order to give an opportunity to students for expressing their subject knowledge effectively in solving the question papers and to facilitate the conduct of examination it is desirable that the question papers may be prepared in two languages,” an AICTE letter said. 

However, since no student has enrolled in regional language technical education in the State and technical education is not taught in any language other than English, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has decided to write a letter to AICTE taking objection to the order. 

The AICTE has been promoting technical education in Indian languages by granting approval of extra seats for offering undergraduate/diploma Engineering courses in regional languages.

“By offering exams in Indian languages, educational institutes and organisations can include a more diverse range of students. It shows that languages are not going to be a barrier to showcasing their knowledge and skills,” AICTE said in its order. 

The AICTE also observed that students know the question’s answer but owing to the language barrier, they are not able to evaluate the question effectively. So when students read questions in local languages, they can easily understand the concepts and respond to questions effectively. This improves the overall performance of the candidate, AICTE argued. 

No takers

After introducing the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) in higher education in the State, the previous BJP government in Karnataka offered Engineering courses in Civil and Mechanical branch in 2021-22 in the Kannada medium. However, in the last three years not a single student has opted for this. 

In 2021-22, when it was introduced, three technical institutions offered Kannada-medium Engineering courses in the State and a total of 17 students had opted for them. But all of them withdrew by the time of admission.

In 2022-23 and 2023-24, two students opted for the course and later they also withdrew their admission.

Therefore, the VTU has decided to write a letter to the AICTE taking objection to their order that mandates question papers of technical courses to be bilingual. 

“There is no response from the students and parents for Kannada-medium Engineering courses in the State. So, there is no question of preparing technical course question papers in two  languages. In our university, English is only the medium of instruction for all Engineering branches,” said S. Vidyashankar, Vice-Chancellor of VTU.