Medical education books to be translated into Gujarati

Ahmedabad: Following the Union government's decision to introduce medical education in regional languages, the state government has started preparations for teaching of medical, dental, physiotherapy and nursing courses in Gujarati.

On Tuesday, the commissioner for medical education and health issued a notification announcing that a 17-member committee has been constituted to translate all medical education textbooks for medical, dental, physiotherapy and nursing courses into Gujarati. The notification says the committee will submit a roadmap to the department within a fortnight. The decision has been taken in light of the National Education Policy (NEP).

On November 10, the National Medical Commission (NMC) convened a meeting of all state heads over video conferencing under the agenda 'Bilingual Education'. It was decided to form a committee at state-level to delegate responsibilities, the notification said.

Sources said most of the medical fraternity is not pleased with this move as they say that it is not possible to teach medical subjects in regional languages as translating medical terminology into Indian regional languages is next to impossible.

On October 16, Union home minister Amit Shah had launched the country's first medical education in Hindi language in Madhya Pradesh. The state launched the pilot project of an MBBS course in Hindi at Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal. Three MBBS subjects - anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry - are taught in Hindi in the first year in all 13 government medical colleges of Madhya Pradesh and this will continue in the second year during the next session.

A doctor who did not wish to be named said that in the Hindi translation of medical textbooks, they have translated the word 'injection' as 'dravya aushadh sharirantargat sukshmaropan nalika'. "It is almost impossible to translate medical terminology. They should not experiment with such sensitive branches of education," the doctor said.