The Indian Institute of Kanpur has established a USD 1 million Shivani Centre to project its courses to students who come from non-English medium academic setups. Parallelly, the move will also promote, nurture and re-integrate Hindi and Other Indian Languages (OILs) in the foray of scholastic instruction here. The path-breaking initiative will smoothen social integration among peer groups, besides facilitating professional or personal growth due to language barriers.
IIT- Kanpur to ensure vernacular language resource development
The Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur has set up the Shivani Centre for the benefit of candidates across the country. Reportedly, the IIT will flag off the project in a time-bound manner, with focus on strategic interventions. This will include preparatory material, indexing of objectives, translation of courses into Hindi and OILs along with the development of relevant software and technological tools.
The Shivani Centre is pegged to IIT-K’s step forward to diversify its social-academic milieu and pave a way for the non-English speaking student to harness the best of career or growth opportunities. As per reports, the institute has been set up by IIT-K alumnus Mr Muktesh Pant in the memory of his mother Smt Gaura Pant, Shivani. Famed to be one of the most popular figures of Hindi Literature in the 20th Century, Shivani was conferred with the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1982 for her immense contribution in this field.
In a statement, alumnus Pant stated that though knowledge of languages is an asset, fluency in English should not be a parameter in getting advanced education in engineering. IIT Kanpur has always been a pioneer of academic innovations, he added, hoping that it will be able to progress the use of regional languages into the future of possibilities.
The IIT-K will further shoulder the responsibility of not only dealing with language barriers at the institute level but also in the context of higher education in India, read reports. The Insitute will facilitate the development and programming of academic resources, such as STEM content, textbooks, reference, digital tools in vernacular languages.
Developing expression & promoting growth
The Centre will ensure the availability of the course content in regional languages to overcome the challenge of restricted job opportunities at the end of the academic program.@PIBHRD @ians_india @ANI @PIB_India @MIB_India @PBNS_India
— Abhay Karandikar (@karandi65) August 19, 2021
One of the key aims of the Shivani Centre will be to broaden the scope and opportunities for self-expression and personal growth at educational institutes. It will channel inclusivity at the prestigious IIT and guard young students from the feeling of exclusion or isolation. The centre will thus objectively promote the integration of different student groups, accelerating acculturation and social growth. Holistically, the Shivani centre will promote communication, literary and artistic expression using Hindi and OILs.
In a tweet, the Director of IIT Kanpur, Professor Abhay Karandikar said, “The Centre is expected to bring about a paradigm shift in educational practices. It will ensure seamless integration of Hindi and OILs background students at the institute and will fulfil the objectives laid out in National Education Policy.” As per reports, the project will be financially aided until it is able to sustain itself independently.
