Education minister silent on IIT language option

The IITs appear to have kept in abeyance the government’s decision to introduce engineering courses in regional languages from 2021.

Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday announced that the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced would be held on July 3 and that the eligibility requirement of 75 per cent marks in Class XII board exams would be relaxed, but did not make any mention of the language options of the test or whether courses would be offered in the respective mother tongues of states.

Two officials of IIT Kharagpur told The Telegraph that the exam, to select students for the IITs, would be held as usual in Hindi and English. They said the regional language option for the exam and the courses could be possible from 2022.