Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Tuesday underscored the importance of the mother tongue in education, saying the Centre’s National Education Policy gives due weight to learning native languages.

Speaking after releasing a biography of India’s first Railway Minister, John Matthai, the Governor recalled Matthai’s contributions as an educationist and economist, according to a statement from the Lok Bhavan. Arlekar described Matthai, also a former Union Finance Minister and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala, as a man of “great honesty and integrity”.

He also noted that the contributions of several Kerala-born academics, including V P Menon, have not been sufficiently acknowledged in the country’s post-Independence history.

The biography, Honest John, authored by Bakhtiar K Dadabhoy, was released at a function jointly organised by the Universities of Calicut and Kerala at the Lok Bhavan.

At the event, six new Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) developed by the Electronic Media and Mass Communication Research Centre (EMMRC) of the University of Calicut were also launched. “These programmes aim to expand access to quality higher education through flexible, technology-enabled learning and to ensure that more research papers and documents by Indian students are available online in open-access format,” the statement said.

The statement added that the Centre’s One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme provides access to thousands of journals and research papers for students, faculty, and researchers across higher-education institutions.

Besides Dadabhoy, Calicut University Vice-Chancellor Dr P Raveendran, Kerala University Vice-Chancellor Dr Mohanan Kunnummal, and Vivek Matthai, grandson of John Matthai, were present.

150th anniversary of ‘Vande Mataram’
The Governor directed vice-chancellors of the state’s universities to observe the 150th anniversary of the national song Vande Mataram in a befitting manner. Competitions, cultural events, and other activities can be organised to mark the occasion, he told the vice-chancellors, according to a Lok Bhavan release. Stating that the directive followed instructions from the Centre, he said the ideals of the freedom movement must be instilled across all sections of society.