Medical edn in Marathi to be challenging: feel practitioners, academicians

By Mehboob Inamdar

Aurangabad: The State Government decided to offer medical education in Marathi as part of making education in the regional language. Doctors and academicians feel that medical education in Marathi will be challenging for students, teachers and practitioners. There is also confusion about how medical course textbooks and other related literature will be made available for students and how much it will benefit the students since most of the books and literature are available in English.

City branch president of the Indian Medical Association Dr Sachin Phadnis said that the pronunciation of many English words of medical if translated into Marathi, would not be easy for both students and teachers. “There is no doubt that a student can understand better in his/her mother tongue. But, there are challenges to imparting medical education in Marathi. One of them is the translation of books and the training of teachers. The existing medical colleges are facing a shortage of teachers. Sushruta was considered the first surgeon while Charak was the first physician. But, we lacked to promote Ayurveda,” he said.

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Constant updates in medical fields

Dr Manoj Hambarde, (ex-general secretary, MARD, GMCH) said that there is a fast update in every field with the arrival of new technology. “Some countries translated books into their local language. But, there was no trend of knowledge updating at a fast pace at that time. Today, those countries have sufficient textbooks and are ready to translate new research into their language,” he said. Dr Hambarde said that he feels that the Government should make available all the textbooks and literature in Marathi first and then, impart the education in regional language.

“The timing of the decision is wrong. Today, the constant update is there in the medical field because of research. Conferences, seminars and workshops are held in English to inform practitioners about the latest development in the field. There are thousands of diseases and various types of patients. If the translation of textbooks and references books are not done on time, doctors of the future generation will lag in the field,” he said

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Ayurveda can be taught in Marathi not allopathy

Nashua Fatima an MBBS intern said that to date it is all going in English with a number of borrowed words from Greek, Italian, Roman and other languages. “What had gone wrong? Imparting medical education in vernacular languages will become more difficult if the translation is not done properly. One will not get the exact word and the basic existing words, and terms will be written in a distorted way. If at all translated, how will you get the meaning confirmed for accuracy? she questioned.

Dr Fatima feels that it can be fine with Ayurveda which is of Indian origin but not with allopathy. “It will all start from the MBBS degree itself. It will be different for different languages, and how will that sound, she added.

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Cannot do away with English if you want to be professional

Laxman Kadam, a linguist from the city said that English serves as a window to the world for knowledge. “The world has become a global village. Most of the reference books are available in English because of continuous research in those countries. Even the usage of technology is not easy without this language. Anyone who wants to become a professional in the corporate sector will have to learn English.