MBBS in Marathi: Maharashtra to introduce medical textbooks in Marathi from next year

NEW DELHI: The Maharashtra government has announced to introduce MBBS textbooks in Marathi from the next academic year. The move comes after Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh decided to launch medical studies textbooks in Hindi.

“Maharashtra is planning to give the option of Marathi for all the streams, including ayurvedic, homoeopathy, dental and even for nursing. Maharashtra would be the first state to offer a Marathi syllabus for all these streams,” medical education minister Girish Mahajan told the Hindustan Times.

“We have appointed committees to study the plan and the steps to be taken. The Marathi syllabus will help the students who have studied in Marathi mediums to tide over their complex for English,” he said.

The state government is also planning to have all the professional courses available in Marathi, the report added.

Recently, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) said that it will start teaching BTech first year students in Hindi, in addition to English, for the convenience of students who studied in Hindi medium.

Academicians, experts and students have expressed mixed feelings about teaching MBBS in Hindi and other regional languages. On Hindi imposition, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) Doctors Association said that the “medical education needs a push towards research and innovation of the highest level rather than the deep dive into cultural chauvinism”. It also pointed out that the need of the hour is to produce world class doctors to serve our people.

Also read | Madhya Pradesh medical colleges will teach 3 MBBS subjects in Hindi from 2022

Madhya Pradesh announced that three MBBS subjects – anatomy, physiology and bio-chemistry – will be taught in Hindi to first-year MBBS students. After MP, Uttar Pradesh chief minister, some medical and engineering courses will be available in Hindi too, from the coming year.

In mid-October, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan proposed to start a medical college offering MBBS courses in Tamil medium.

In July 2022, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) launched a mission to make technical courses available in non-English languages and earmarked a budget of Rs 18.6 crore for developing the second-year course material in English and its translation into 12 Indian languages.