JOIN USSpeaking to Deccan Herald, Karnataka Tulu Sahithya Academy President Dr Palthadi Ramakrishna Achar said the draft of the syllabus was finalised at a meeting in Puttur on May 15. It was attended by the members of syllabus committee set up by the Government for teaching Tulu.
“Once the DSERT approves the syllabus, it will be handed over to Textbook Committee to prepare the textbook. The committee has already been formed. If everything goes well as per the plan, then textbooks will be ready by June 15,” he added.
The Government had issued an order on March 26 to teach Tulu as the third optional language from the sixth standard. According to the order, the teaching should be restricted to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
“According to a survey conducted by the Education Department, as many as 250 schools and 12,000 students may choose Tulu as the third optional language from sixth standard in primary schools in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts from 2010-11. A majority of them are from Dakshina Kannada. In Udupi, about 2,000 students are likely to opt for Tulu, as Kannada dominates rural parts of Udupi district,” he said.
The Academy had written a letter to Shikshana Samithi of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, seeking permission to give training for the teachers to teach Tulu. Udupi Zilla Panchayat has already replied to the letter and has asked details on the training and number of teachers to be trained in a batch. It has also written a letter to Udupi DDPI to make arrangement in this regard. The Udupi ZP has also urged the DDPI to send the teachers in batches.
“The issue of training the teachers should be taken up by the Department of Education in association with DIET. The Academy will provide resource persons to train the teachers,” Dr Achar informed.
In fact, Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had introduced Tulu for eighth standard students at four private high schools in Dakshina Kannada on an experimental basis last year. The schools included Alva’s High School, Moodbidri; Dattanjaneya High School, Odiyoor; Ramakunjeshwara English Medium High School, Ramakunja; and Vani Composite Pre-University College, Belthangady.
The Academy had trained eight teachers, two each from four schools, to teach Tulu. In fact, the Academy provided honorarium to them. The Tulu teaching was welcomed by the students, he added.
No Tulu script
Dr Achar said that according to the Government Order, Tulu should be taught in Kannada script and not in Tulu script. “If Tulu script was introduced at the sixth standard level, it may discourage students from opting the language,” he said.
The Academy had suggested to the Government to print 8,000 textbooks initially. “Additional textbooks can be printed later, depending on the demand,” he added.