Delhi University offers short-term courses in 8 Indian languages

The University of Delhi is planning to introduce short-term certificate courses in 8 northeast Indian languages.

University, Vice-Chancellor, Dinesh Singh said, "There is a proposal to offer short-term courses in 8 different languages of the northeast, which will include tutorials on basic working knowledge of the languages and not the detailed scripts."

The Varsity's, Linguistic department is working in preparation of structure of the courses and has a plan of action.

As many as 900 students will be given the opportunity to travel on "Dharodhar-Gyanodaya Express" from December 20 to 30 which is all set to travel to northeast region this year to enrich students about the culture and heritage of the region.

"While the university has invited proposals from the students regarding the projects they would like to undertake during the journey, the short term certificate courses will give an opportunity to the students to learn the languages irrespective of the tour," Prof Chandrahekhar, Coordinator for the Gyanodyaa Express said.

The certificate courses which will run for the duration of one month will be open to all students whether they are selected for the train journey or not.

"The languages for the proposed courses include Assamese, Nagamese, Manipuri, Arunachali and Tripuri. There will be foundation courses in Nepali and Bengali as well that are widely spoken in Sikkim and Tripura respectively," said Dr Santacruz, Deputy Dean Students' Welfare and Coordinator for the North East students.

"However, no decision has been reached yet on whether these are one-time courses or will be offered in the future as well," he added.

According to the university records, around 5,000 students from the North Eastern states are enrolled in various undergraduate and post graduate programmes.

While DU's linguistic department doesn't offer any full time courses in the North Eastern language, the undergraduate students have the option of choosing either Assamese or Manipuri as an elective during their three-year degree course.