‘Shouldn’t live in illusions that foreign language can help achieve goals’: Union Minister Pradhan stresses on education in native language

The minister, who was addressing the gathering at the 13th Convocation of Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT), began his address by invoking Lord Ram and referring to the upcoming consecration ceremony of Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

In his speech in Hindi. Pradhan said, “It is our responsibility, under the new education policy, to create our character in innovation, skill-based education, entrepreneurship and job creation. It will be possible when we think of these subjects in (native) language…”

He said, “When Mahatma Gandhi went to South Africa, he knew English… We should not live in illusions that we can become self-reliant, self-respecting, and achieve bigger goals only if we adopt foreign languages. We will speak the languages that we need to know in order to take global leadership, which can be English or Mandarin or even German or Spanish, but the psychologists and sociologists in the world have concluded that when we clearly think in our mother tongue– the language that a child hears for the first time and studies in brain developing years– we can learn any world language.”

Commending the ‘Gujarati-speaking countryside’ of Anand for spearheading the White Revolution, Pradhan said that the new education policy was focussed on increasing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 50% in the country.

He said it is pertinent to have clarity in mother tongue to have clarity in English and hence the National Education Policy has envisioned teaching in native languages until Class 8.

Pradhan explained that the White Revolution happened because traditional, Gujarati-speaking villagers were able to develop the dexterity to commercialise animal husbandry and create a cooperative movement out of it.

“In the days to come, our aim is to increase the gross enrollment ratio in higher education from 27 per cent to 50 per cent. When more people study and become skilled to join the workforce, we will be a developed economy. Language proficiency is as important as skill. It is imperative to know that we live in an illusion that education and competency are meant for ourselves and our comfort but you have to deal with those who are at the receiving end of your business” he said.

Pradhan also lauded the Patel-community dominated region of Anand and Nadiad — known as Charotar — for leading the development and emerging societies in the country.

He said, “Anand has the tradition of showing people the way…Anand is outside the visible pomp and show of the world. Anand has IRMA. It is the epicentre of White Revolution, it has inspired the country for unification. This Milk capital will become the Knowledge capital… Due to your intellectual capacity, innovation and your risk-taking aptitude, you will remain ahead by two decades from the rest of the country”.

On the importance of Artificial Intelligence, minister Pradhan said the presence of Micron in Gujarat will “lead the way” for the rest of India as the country moves ahead to become a 7 trillion dollar economy by 2030.

Pradhan said, “India’s tax collection has increased and it is also witnessing the most digital transactions in the world… Now an inevitable thing is Artificial Intelligence. Today, we do not feel it is needed but within five years we will be influenced by it. It will not just become an academic topic but it will be needed for medical education, farming, or even reading literature”.

The union minister said that Artificial Intelligence is the outcome of deep-tech research and the government has shaped the new education policy accordingly.