“Government Job Tests In 15 Indian Languages... Plans Are For 22 Languages": Dr Jitendra Singh
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said the government has decided to conduct various government recruitment tests in 15 Indian languages so that the language barrier does not let any youth miss the job opportunity. According to Dr Singh, “this historic decision will give impetus to participation of local youth and encourage regional languages.”
In addition to Hindi and English, the minister said the question paper will be set in the 13 regional languages i.e. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri (also Meiti) and Konkani.
Job aspirants, who have been appearing for recruitment tests like UPSC, SSC, RRB, RRC and IPBS, had been demanding for long for examinations question papers in their regional languages instead of only in Hindi and English.
“The decision will result in lakhs of aspirants taking part in the examination in their mother tongue/regional language and improve their selection prospects,” a statement from the personnel ministry said.
The government had appointed an expert committee to look into the demand of several states to hold SSC exams in languages other than English and Hindi, the minister said.
“Though the policy was initiated with the Official Language Rules, 1976, significant progress has been made only in the last five-six years,” he said.
The minister said plans are afoot to allow written tests in all 22 Scheduled Languages. “The JEE, NEET and UGC exams are also being conducted in 12 of our languages,” he added.
“In UPSC, there is still a dearth of higher studies subject books but efforts are on in coordination with the HRD Ministry to promote specialized books in Indian languages. The first MBBS course in Hindi in the country was launched in October last year in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. And now Uttarakhand has become the second state to launch an MBBS programme in Hindi,” he said.
Calling for adoption of common terminology from English and other languages, Dr Jitendra Singh said Madhya Pradesh could take the lead in introducing medical education in Hindi by adopting words such as “nucleus” and “amoeba” verbatim rather than wasting time and resources in trying to cook up a translation.
