'Today, we use only 5% of country's talent but if...': Amit Shah bats for education in regional languages

AHMEDABAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has once again stressed the importance of regional languages in education. He said that students aspiring to study in technical, medical, and law fields should be able to do so without a language barrier so that the talent of non-English speaking students is also recognised. He claimed that students will find it easier to develop new ideas and indulge in research and innovation if they can explore the subject in their mother tongue.  "Technical, medical, and law - all should be taught in Hindi and regional languages. All state governments should take initiative to properly translate the curriculum of these three fields of education into regional languages," Shah said in an interview with PTI.

Suggesting that education in the mother tongue is easier and faster, Shah said, "It will promote the country's talent in higher education. Today we can use only five percent of the country's talent but with this initiative, we would be able to use 100 percent talent of the country."

Also Read: On Constitution Day, a look at how Centre plans to make law more accessible to common people

He said this five percent comes from an English background, while adding that he has nothing against English as a language.

"It is that 'maulik chintan' (original thinking) of a student can be easily developed in his mother tongue and there is a strong connection between maulik chintan and anusandhan (research)," Shah said.

Talking about his observations on History education, Shah said he has appealed to students to "study 300 (Jannayak) people's heroes who were not given their due by historians and thirty such empires who ruled in India and established a very good model of governance."

Shah said it is time that people and students study the "real history" of the country.

"Till when we will make a hue and cry about what others have written about our history and distortions in it. Students of our country should research our actual history," he said.

The BJP-led governments at the Centre and in states have been holding programmes on various historic icons and their contribution to the freedom struggle and development of the country. The party sees this as part of his ideological exercise to recall the contribution of native personalities including many who were allegedly not given due credit.

(With PTI inputs)