By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: Notwithstanding the plans chalked out and sometimes implemented by the Union and state governments from time to time for the promotion of Urdu language, the truth remains that seeking higher education through Urdu medium is as much cumbersome today as it was earlier.
If Urdu medium students graduating from madrasas and other colleges want to continue their education through distance learning mode, there are no alternatives for them. Even Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), world’s largest Open University, doesn’t have courses available in Urdu medium.
IGNOU was established to help students unable to complete their education for some reason in continuing education but this institution is also unable to benefit that very section of the society which is counted among educationally most backward classes.
This is remarkable that IGNOU offers the facility of distant education in more than one hundred courses at graduation, post-graduation, diploma and certificate levels. All these courses are offered in Hindi or English medium, and some of the courses are available in ten other Indian languages including Punjabi, Oriya, Kannada, Assamese and Bengali, whereas it offers no course in Urdu medium except a foundation course.
Under these circumstances, Urdu medium students graduating from madrasas and other colleges are facing hardship in continuing their education because seats available in colleges that offer Urdu as a subject of study, are very few.
In a letter to IGNOU vice-chancellor Raj Shekhar Pillai, a non-governmental organization ‘Nawa-e-Haq’ has demanded that the Urdu medium courses including those in journalism, B. Ed., B. A., M. A., B. C. A., M. C. A. and other subjects be launched in the university.
Although there has been emphasis on adopting Urdu, one of the most spoken the languages after Hindi, as the second official language, at least on the level of political rhetoric, but implementation of any government plan in this regard appears difficult.