Ahead of taking regional languages to the next level and supporting students to live their dreams the Maharashtra Medical Education department has decided to offer medical textbooks in Marathi.
This is a crucial step aiming to enable students of Marathi medium schooling background to get into the medical line and get the degree of their choice in regional language.
Commenting on this new development, Dr Ashwini Joshi, Secretary, Medical Education Department shared that the first phase of this project will be to ready Marathi textbooks for the first and second year of medical degree courses. These will be optional textbooks for students who have studied in Marathi medium schools for a better understanding of the subjects.
After a step taken by the other states; Maharashtra will be the fourth in India to offer medical education in a regional language. However, there are mixed reactions on this move from different education departments doubting the need and execution of this curriculum effectively.
As per the principal of a government-run medical college, the new decision may be revolutionary but may not have many takers as the demand for medical knowledge in marathi will be required for a very less percentage of students.
Another teacher shared the view saying that we must reflect upon the move as it may be restricting our students from learning a new language in the sake of comfort of mother tongue. Reference textbooks to help students coming from Marathi medium schools is okay. But changing the medium of instruction will neither be feasible nor will it be beneficial for students.
