Mizoram Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai on Monday said protection of local languages and usage of English in a state like Mizoram is unavoidably important.
Addressing the Governor’s Conference on the role of National Education Policy (NEP) in transforming higher education chaired by President Ram Nath Kovind, Pillai praised the country’s move towards Indo-centric education.
Although he lauded the move for the promotion of mother tongue and the local languages, Pillai said the move may not be feasible in the immediate future for Mizoram due to the non-availability of textbooks on subjects such as Science and Mathematics in local languages.
He advocated for the continuation of Hindi and English in states like Mizoram and Tamil Nadu.
“At the same time, multilingualism should definitely be promoted, and may even be incentivized, for example in job opportunities,” he said.
He said the exchange of students is one way of bringing about national integrity as Mizoram is located in a remote corner of the country and contact with other parts of the country is very much desired.
According to the Governor, Mizoram strongly welcomed the NEP since it gives paramount consideration for the promotion of India as a global knowledge superpower.
Since education is the manifestation of what is within a student, he said activities related to arts and our traditional value-based education must be promoted even in higher education.
He applauded the move for having at least one large multidisciplinary Higher Education Institution (HEI) in or near every district by 2030.
On the issue of student drop-outs, he advocated that there should be a uniform mechanism for their re-entry and leniency may also be shown as far as possible.
“For the success of the NEP, a strong digital infrastructure is the need of the hour, especially in a relatively backward State like Mizoram,” he said.