Pune: Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has taken up an initiative to translate popular courses in Marathi for the students coming from rural areas. The idea is to overcome language barriers and improve the efficiency of online lessons. Education Media Research Centre (EMRC) took up this project to help the rural area students.

About 40 courses by SPPU were made available on Swayam - a web platform for 'e-courses'. But, the modules posted on Swayam were not in Marathi, hence the University decided to translate lectures in Marathi to aid students coming from rural areas.

In conversation with Pune Mirror, "There are courses from faculties like psychology, mass media management, forensic, food science, among others, which are popular with students. We have chosen 40 courses in the first phase and 40 per cent of work to accomplish this goal has already been started, " said Vivek Nabar, information officer at ERMC.

According to reports, online classes are accessible to all the students, even the ones from rural areas. However, since these are recorded lectures and not face-to-face interaction, the University understands few students might face difficultly while viewing the content. Keeping in mind all the aspects, SPPU decided to translate lectures in Marathi to avoid creating any discussion barriers in online classes.

Professors who can translate the material in Marathi have begun their work, meanwhile, SPPU has also invited people who would like to volunteer for the same cause.

Whilst Marathi language is the prime focus at the moments, the university is also planning on translating material in other languages like Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Bangla.