As India continues to develop, technology and education are becoming critical enablers of talent nationwide. With the emergence of new-age technologies, relevant education is becoming indispensable for students to integrate themselves into the workforce. However, language barriers are proving to be significant obstacles in this, highlighting the need for vernacular languages in technology-driven education.
India is home to diverse linguistic communities. This country boasts over 700 languages and thousands of dialects. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India has 22 scheduled languages spoken by 96.71% of Indian residents. To supplement the growing need to educate Indians irrespective of geographical and linguistic communities, Indian policymakers and other stakeholders must explore integrating vernacular languages in tech education, assisting Indian students to join the workforce and contribute to the country’s long-term economic transformation. Vernacular language-driven tech education offers inclusivity of rural and peri-urban learners to mainstream education, also helping India create a sustainable and comprehensive educational ecosystem that benefits all. With PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat in play, integrating vernacular languages in tech education empowers millions of Indians. It enables them to drive the country’s long-term economic transformation.
Inclusivity
Recent statistics reveal that most Indians, 83.3 crore or 69%, live in rural regions. In comparison, only 31% live in urban areas. Education in rural areas is highly dependent on vernacular languages, and students from these areas often need help comprehending globally dominant languages like English. This weakness provides a significant barrier to them learning new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and others, keeping them from joining the workforce. However, this challenge can be overcome by integrating vernacular languages in tech curriculums, which can help them comprehend and learn complex technological knowledge.
Technology itself is all-encompassing, and enabling vernacular language-speaking learners to integrate themselves into the domain helps top companies tap into an untouched talent pool, the government generate more jobs, and students become contributing factors in India’s development story. The GOI has been one of the foremost advocates of promoting vernacular languages both domestically and internationally, and this will also be a pivotal change in achieving favourable results.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Comprehending tech education through vernacular languages will also help raise innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among new-age learners. Including these students in the existing workforce will collectively benefit the Indian tech industry, allowing it to bridge the gap with the global industry. With considerable technological knowledge in their repertoire, these learners will be a positive inclusion in churning out new innovative and original ideas that have the potential to transform the overall outlook of the sector, helping India to become the technological capital of the world. These ideas will also lead to a visible increase in new startups, and new unicorns born from them will have a major impact on the country’s economic outlook for the future.
According to the Press Information Bureau, at least one government-recognized startup operates in 80% of Indian districts and has created over 12 lakh jobs so far. Using vernacular languages in tech education will enhance this number multifold, increasing innovation and entrepreneurship in the country while acting as a critical enabler of an educational transformation in the nation.
Generating Jobs
One of the major obstacles for Indian IT companies has been the glaring lack of trained professionals in new-age technologies. From large corporations to startups, all are having difficulties overcoming this obstacle, leading them to introduce major upskilling initiatives for their existing workforce. While tech education in India is aligning rapidly with industry requirements, integrating vernacular languages in the curriculums can help the sector hire talented students from rural and peri-urban regions, mitigating talent deficiency for critical roles. This endeavour offers to generate more jobs across levels, helping to reduce unemployment and raising the overall contributions of the Indian citizens in its growth story.
Empowering rural India
Recent prominent surveys have found that up to 85% of rural youth are looking for non-agricultural jobs in the country. Millions of rural youth can pursue higher education in new-age technological courses and secure relevant employment opportunities by introducing vernacular language-driven tech education. This will lead to an increased inflow of income to middle-class and lower-middle-class families in these regions, helping them to accumulate more wealth than before and become critical contributors to India’s growth. On the other hand, as rural India becomes empowered, developmental activities and initiatives will also increase in targeted areas, aligning them with the urban areas of the countries. This will directly impact PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat, with numerous benefits to the Indian government’s objective of transforming the country into a developed nation by 2047.
As technological inventions capture widespread attention both domestically and internationally, policymakers and stakeholders will look to all resources to streamline India’s growth chart. Considering the majority of the Indian population converses in vernacular languages, this presents a unique opportunity in the education domain and could prove to be a masterstroke in the future.
