956 students to write Tulu as third optional language in SSLC exam

A total of 956 children from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts will write Tulu as third optional language in SSLC examinationations this year.

The first batch of students wrote Tulu language as the third optional language paper in the SSLC examination in 2014-15. A total of 18 students had appeared for the exam then.

Out of 956 students who will write their Tulu subject in SSLC this time, 346 students are from Puttur, 66 from Sullia , 342 from Belthangady, 57 from Bantwal, 63 from Mangaluru and 82 are from Udupi.

There has been an increase in demand for Tulu as a third optional language in the recent past. A total of 42 schools are teaching Tulu as third optional language in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts with 2,600 students studying Tulu from Class 6.

The Department of Public Instruction offers Hindi, Kannada, English, Tulu, Konkani, Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit as the third optional language. Last year, a total of 27,564 students had written SSLC examinations in Dakshina Kannada district. Among them, 25,174 students had opted for Hindi as third optional language, followed by Kannada — 1,046 and Tulu — 593 students. As many as 516 students had opted English as third language and 26 students had opted Konkani as third language.

A source said, "Over the years, Tulu has not only become one of the scoring subjects, but also helped in improving the pass percentage of the district at a large extent. Last year, 63 students had scored 100 out of 100 marks in SSLC. The students in both the districts did well in their Tulu examination which was also reflected in increase in pass percentage in SSLC exam."

At present, 17 schools in Puttur, two schools in Sullia, 11 schools in Belthangady, three in Bantwal, four in Mangaluru, and five in Udupi are teaching Tulu as third optional language for the students. Puttur taluk has highest students of 1,219 studying Tulu as optional language from class 6, followed by 670 students in Belthangady, 205 students in Udupi, 187 in Mangaluru, 143 in Bantwal and 176 in Sullia taluks.

Earlier, Tulu was introduced as a third optional language for Class 6 in 2010-11, for Class 7 in 2011-12, for Class 8 in 2012-13 and for Class 9 in 2013-14.

Number of students appearing for Tulu exam

Year Students Schools
2014-15 18 1
2015-16 25 3
2016-17 283 12
2017-18 417 22
2018-19 650 34
2019-20 956 39