Mangalore, June 24 (DHNS) : If everything goes on as per the plan, then all the students who would like to opt Tulu as third optional language from 6th standard will get their textbooks by July 15.
The State Government had issued an order on March 26 to teach Tulu as the third optional language from the sixth standard. According to the order, its teaching should be restricted to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Karnataka Tulu Sahithya Academy President Dr Palthadi Ramakrishna Achar said the draft textbook is ready and after proof reading, it will be sent to Bangalore for printing. “We need to be very careful to see that there are no mistakes in the textbook.”
The syllabi was prepared by a committee led by Dr Palthadi Ramakrishna Achar, Prof G S Madambadithaya, Sukumar Gowda, Prof Amruth Someshwar, Dr U P Upadhyaya at a meeting in Puttur on May 15. After DSERT approved the syllabi, the textbook committee met once again on June 15 to finalise the textbook.
He said the textbook has to be prepared on the guidelines of National Education Policy. “As per the policy, there is a need to include 84 values in the textbook from sixth to tenth standard. The values include truth, faithful, helping others, patriotism, respect for language and so. All the 84 values must taught to the students by the time the student completes tenth standard.”
Dr Achar said “since we are following Kannada script, students will not find it difficult in script as they need not learn to write a new script unlike Hindi. We have maintained high standard while preparing the textbook. The textbook will have 12 prose, 8 poems and can be completed in 130 periods.”
The toughest part of preparing textbook is preparing exercise at the end of each lesson, he says and added the question should not include only direct questions unlike in the past. It should have application based question, questions questioning the knowledge of a student. Apart from this, at the end of every lesson, activity should be suggested for the students to do. The pictures for each lesson has been drawn by Taranath Kairangala.
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.
DDPI Chame Gowda said that he had sought reports from BEOs on the number of
students who had opted for Tulu as the third language, after the schools reopened.
The Government had not sent any guidelines regarding the qualifications of Tulu teachers.