Tulu as third optional language in schools, good response

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, July 19, 2016: Tulu was introduced as a third optional subject for class 6 in 2010-11, in DK and Udupi but the response was not encouraging all these years.  Now, the efforts of Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy and Department of Education, has made the number of schools opting Tulu as an optional subject jump to 17 in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Academy Registrar Chandrahas Rai said a total of 626 children are studying Tulu as an optional subject. Among them, 611 students are in Dakshina Kannada. History is being made with 15 students starting to learn Tulu as third optional language in class 8 at Government Girls PU College in Udupi from this academic year.  "Though Tulu was the main dialect  in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, not many students come forward to learn Tulu as an optional language. Now efforts are paying off to promote Tulu.

Registrar Rai said 244 students will appear for an optional Tulu paper in SSLC examination this year while it was only 25 students in 2015 and 18 students in 2014. Last year, 285 students learnt Tulu as an Optional subject in Dakshina Kannada. There were no takers for Tulu in Udupi district, he observed.

Tulu can be promoted if more school headmasters come forward. At present, the academy is paying honorariums to Tulu teachers. It is also making efforts to provide honorariums, if not salaries from the government to these teachers in future. If more students opt for Tulu as third optional language in class 10, then it would help to introduce it in first year and second PUC level too.

The academy is making a proposal along with all the data to the government to introduce Tulu as an optional subject in PUC level. A delegation, under the chairmanship of academy President Janaki Brahmavar, is likely to be taken to the government to impress upon the government the need for introducing Tulu as an optional subject at PUC level.

In many instances even if children showed interest in studying Tulu as an optional third language, their parents were not keen on encouraging them as they felt Tulu will not have value addition when it comes to employment prospects.  Eighteen students, who had opted for Tulu as the third language, passed SSLC in Dakshina Kannada district last year.