Role of MILES in Language Education

There are 16 statutory professional councils like AICTE, DEC, ICAR, NCTE, MCI, etc., which are entrusted with the responsibility of recognising and regulating the courses of study in the respective disciplines across the country.

But the absence of such a centralised mechanism, the discipline of language studies which is an essential component in every system of education has being left out unmonitored. This has resulted in the mushrooming of language courses across the country.

Unless an appropriate mechanism is evolved to monitor for this at the central level , it will have an indirect effect not only on the 50 million learners but also on the 1000 million users of these languages; thus, incompatible to the growing technology.

Entry 66 of the union list (under article 246 of the constitution of India)^* , places 'education' in the concurrent list. Hence, the coordination between the union and the states of the country is brought about through CABE ^# in which all the education ministers of the States / UTs are members.

This gives exclusive legislative power to the Central Government for co-ordination and determination of standards in institutions of higher education or research, and scientific & technical institutions.

Exercising this legislative power, CIIL the apex body of the Govt. of India on language matters, initiated action to evolve a centralised mechanism through an integrated R&D in evaluation in the context of Indian language education.

The result of which is the evolution of MILES. This, on its full development, would serve as a monitoring mechanism to recognise and regulate the courses in Indian languages across the country by clearly determining the criteria for certification, admission , and employment at different levels of education.