Former Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday, April 20, lauded UGC chairman's "local language" push in university exams, saying, "it's high time we shed the colonial legacy", reported PTI.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday, April 19, introduced a major reform that urged universities to allow students to write exams in local languages even if the course is offered in English medium, while arranging evaluators and encouraging the translation of textbooks.

The Vice President lauded UGC Chairman, Prof M Jagadesh Kumar by saying that, "He deserves to be commended for his letter to universities to allow students to write examinations in local languages even if the medium of instruction is English."

He further added via a series of tweets that the "promotion of the teaching-learning process in mother tongue is a welcome move."

The VP elucidated the fact that the new norm would mark a change to our existing pedagogy of education. "I have always advocated the wider use of one's mother tongue in education at all levels and am very pleased at this development. It is high time we shed the colonial legacy which had been impeding our all-round socio-economic growth and give equal importance to local languages," he added.

What the chairman had said...

Noting that the academic ecosystem continues to be English medium-centric, the UGC chief had said that once the teaching, learning and assessment are done in local languages, student engagement will gradually increase, leading to an increase in the success rate.

Asked about how students writing in local languages will be evaluated, he said, "This will be possible if the evaluators also know the local language and the university can make the effort to find the evaluators who know the local language."

"The idea is to let the students write the answers in a language that will provide them the opportunity to express themselves easily," Kumar had said.