2 students enrol for Gujarati medium engineering courses, but shift to English within days

Said Jani, “After taking the admission, my father and I met the college staff and were satisfied with the arrangements made by the institute. We soon realised that it might be a problem for me. I wish to pursue higher studies abroad, but my marksheets would be in Gujarati, which might be a problem in my VISA application.”

After having finished their semester exams now, Priya and Hetvi said they have “settled” into the medium of instruction even as it was “difficult in the beginning”.

With the Central government’s push under the National Education Policy (NEP) to offer technical courses in the mother tongue, the GPERI, which is affiliated to the Gujarat Technical University (GTU), started offering 30 seats in the Civil, Computer Science, Electrical and Mechanical engineering branches from the 2022 academic session. GPERI is the first college to do so in Gujarat.

Answering why students would opt out of the programme, GTU Vice-Chancellor Pankajray Patel said “there is a general perception among students and their parents that the degree in Gujarati medium does not hold the same recognition as that of English medium”. “They think that their job opportunities would be less than their counterparts in English medium,” he adds.

Taking stock of the scenario, the institute chalked out a detailed plan for the coming 2023-24 admissions.
“We now have time for awareness for this initiative, unlike last time. This has been divided into three phases — we have already completed one. The second schedule will commence on April 10,” GPERI principal Chirag Vibhakar said.

Under the proposed plan, the institute is hoping to reach out to rural and tribal school students and set a target audience for the Gujarati programmes. In the first phase, the awareness campaign focussed on the Adarsh Niwasi Shalas across the state and has covered North Gujarat districts such as Patan, Aravalli, Banaskantha and Gandhinagar. The second is focussed for south and central Gujarat. The remaining areas will be looked at in the third phase.

“We are aiming for 55 schools in rural and tribal areas to spread awareness about this initiative and its benefits. There is a general perception among students from these areas that engineering is tough in English medium. So, they opt for other courses like nursing,” Vibhakar said.

The GTU is also simultaneously undertaking translation of textbooks for the second year. “First-year translation work is complete with 20 books. Nearly 50 per cent work for second year too has been done,” said GTU Registrar D N Kher.

Vibhakar said that 40 members of the teaching faculty at GPERI are well-equipped to teach in Gujarati.
Speaking to The Indian Express in July 2022 after the decision to start programmes in Gujarati was taken, then GTU Vice-Chancellor Navin Sheth said the move came after a series of meetings and consultations with industry experts of each sector.

“We met experts in civil engineering and mechanical engineering. Everyone said that they do not object to hiring candidates with an engineering degree in Gujarati. Instead, they said the move will help the candidates as they are required to communicate with workers in their mother tongue,” he added.