India's technical regulator has asked academics and students to translate technical content on national study platforms into eight regional languages.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe appealed to teachers, students, researchers and professionals to translate technical content on government e-learning platforms into regional languages.
These include Swayam, Swayam Prabha and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).
The AICTE's announcement on its official Twitter account says the eight languages it has selected are Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati and Malayalam.
“The selected translators will be given appreciation certificates, honorarium and non-tangible benefits.”
Appeal @ #AICTEdge#AICTE Chairman @adsahasrabudhe seeks translation of @SWAYAMMHRD/@nptelindia online courses to Indian #Languages via https://t.co/snJw4hU1gO
— AICTE (@AICTE_INDIA) May 12, 2020
Selected translators to be given Appreciation Certificate, honorarium & non-tangible benefitshttps://t.co/4ZCkTeamYQ pic.twitter.com/NH8BUDAuHK
English and other languages
Most of the content available on Swayam and NPTEL portals are in English. Some of this content is also broadcast through Swayam Prabha TV channel, also in English.
To help students in rural areas, AICTE has decided to make the content available in regional languages.
The translated content will also provide multiple online options to students and make the content easy and interesting.
“Translated scripts if made available in different Indian languages then students can read while watching videos,” said the AICTE letter to the principals and directors of educational institutions.
The translation aims to help students in grasping the fundamentals of technical courses especially in first year in which “failure rate is quite high”.
For NPTEL engineering courses which contain about 1,200 videos, AICTE has sought faculty who teach these courses at engineering colleges as translators.
The method to be followed for translation is available at the web portal.
