NEW DELHI: Medical and technical education should be taught in mother tongue to make it easier for the poor who have not studied English in schools, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
Hours later, doctors and various experts said the move would be “impractical” and “not feasible.” They contended that any such proposal was not well thought out.
On the occasion of Jan Aushadhi Diwas, Modi pitched for a greater reach of native languages. “...they (students) will be able to study medical and technical education in their mother tongue so that the poor, middle-class and lower-middle-class children who haven’t taken English in schools will also be able to become doctors.”
The prime minister on Sunday in Assam had also said he has a dream of setting up at least one medical
college and a technical institution in each state that will impart education in the local language.
However, doctors and experts said the move is not well-thought-out and not feasible.
Dr Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, a former member of the Medical Council of India, said, “India is a multilingual nation. We will have to standardise the words so that it means the same in other local languages too. I am not able to understand what goal will be achieved by doing this. The government’s move is a very impractical one.”
Federation of All India Medical Association (FIMA) national president Dr Rohan Krishnan also spoke in the same vein.
“National Medical Commission (NMC) allows students, who have done MBBS from six English speaking countries, to practice medicine in India without a screening test. This shows that they also understand that quality medical education can only be provided and accepted when done in English,” he said, adding that it is not feasible.