Addressing the 19th Convocation of National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (NITR) on Saturday, Union Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan as chief guest stressed on the usage of mother tongue when it comes to education.

Language is a primary challenge of our education system he added. Citing the example of Germany, Japan and China, he said they have adopted their mother tongues in their education system.

Though they have control over English but they usually do their researches in their mother tongue, he said.

He further said primary principle of the New Education Policy (NEP)-2020 is to decolonize our mindset. He thanked the Prime Minister for conceptualizing the NEP.

He further said in 1947 only 20% people of India were literate and about 25 crore of people were illiterate. But after 75 years of independence, now the literacy percentage is 80 but still 27 crore of people are illiterate.

“So far as illiteracy is concerned, we cannot achieve the five trillion economy and we cannot be a super power. It will be only possible if education is imparted in local language or mother tongue. That is why the Prime Minister has rightly said all the languages are our national language,” said Pradhan.

Sundargarh MP Jual Oram, Rourkela MLA Sarada Prasad Nayak, NITR Director and Chairman, Board of Governors, Prof K Umamaheswar Rao and Registrar Prof Rohan Dhiman also spoke.

Six gold medals, five endowment gold medals, five endowment awards, 70 branch topper medals and one endowment cash award were given to students. A total of 11 alumni were conferred with Distinguished Alumnus Award–2021. Total 1,555 students including 859 UG, 608 PG, and 88 PhDs were awarded their degrees.