Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
State: Ayurveda, homoeopathy, dental to be taught in Marathi from next academic year
MUMBAI: With the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments introducing medical education curriculum in Hindi, the Maharashtra government said it will introduce medical education in Marathi from the next academic year.
Medical education minister Girish Mahajan said that the decision of availing the syllabus in Marathi will help the students from rural parts of the state.
“Though Madhya Pradesh was the first state to introduce a syllabus in regional language, they have introduced it only for MBBS, whereas we are planning to give the option of Marathi for all the streams, including ayurveda, homoeopathy, dental and even for nursing. Maharashtra would be the first state to offer a Marathi syllabus for all these streams. 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.
According to the officials from the CM’s office, they also plan to have all the professional courses available in Marathi.
“This syllabus is being made available in the regional languages as per the central government policy. The state cabinet has discussed it last month and the decision of constituting a board for the conversion of all these syllabi has been taken. The board will consider all the possible difficulties and issues in the conversion of the syllabus into Marathi and suggest ways to overcome them,” said the officer.
The medical fraternity, however, remains divided by this decision. Dr Pravin Shingare, former director, of DMER Maharashtra, said that medical education should either be in Hindi or continue to be in English.
“A medical student learning in Marathi may not be able to professionally practice outside Maharashtra/India. Even within Maharashtra, most of the cities are metropolitan. Maharashtra doctors are stated to be the best doctors as far as the skills are concerned,” he shared.
Dr Suhas Pingle, president of the Indian Medical Association (Maharashtra) said this is not the first time that medical education will be given in the local language. “Dr RD Lele wrote his MBBS in the Urdu. He belonged to Hyderabad, a Nizam state then. All over the world, in
Japan, and China, it is taught in their language,” he said.
Marathi medical books printed in British India
The first medical education books in Marathi were written and printed in the 1830s for the medical school, forming the basis of the 177-year-old Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals. Dr Sunil Pandya, who has also written a book on the history of GMC and Sir JJ Hospital shared that Mountstuart Elphinstone, then governor of the Bombay Presidency was allowed to have a medical school with one medical teacher who was asked to impart knowledge in Marathi and local languages. The doctor then got medical books from London and got them translated into Marathi.