Tulu language teaching is on the verge of reaching a milestone with the draft Tulu textbook for class 10 getting ready in time for its introduction from the next academic year. With this, the language will be offered as an optional language from class 6 to class 10.
A committee of Karnataka Textbook Society has prepared the textbook. It has 11 prose and nine poems. Among the prose, there are chapters on social reformer Kudmul Ranga Rao and warrior Rani Abbakka and one on journalism.
The committee members have chosen to introduce freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose and physicist Albert Einstein, who developed the general theory of relativity.
There is a chapter on birdda pulamard, which deals with effective herbal medicines. The other main chapters are about Yakshagana, folk games and pad-dana (narrative or ballad).
Students will be reading an extract titled Gullu (commotion) from the Tulu play Mittabail Yamunakka written by artist D.K. Chowta. Some of the poems included are Tuluvappe by Manjeshwar Govinda Pai, Ajjere Salu by Mandara Keshav Bhat, musku dettu dakku by Amrut Someshwar, appena jakkel by Bhaskar Rai Kukkuvalli.
According to B. Chandrahasa Rai, Registrar, Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, which is co-ordinating the preparation of the textbook, the six-member committee had five sittings for preparing the draft, which is almost final. The committee is headed by Sridhar Rai, headmaster, Ramakrishna High School, Puttur.
The draft will have to be scrutinised by a review committee headed by the former president of the academy Paltady Ramakrishna Achar. Later, it will be printed by the society, he said.
Tulu is being taught in schools from class 6 as the third optional language from 2010-11.
The academy in its July 26, 2013, letter to the Secretary, Primary and Secondary Education, drew the attention of the government on the need to conduct public examination in Tulu for class 10 from 2014-15. The letter requested the government to allot code number and include Tulu in the timetable for public examination.
According to the letter, 1,153 students are studying Tulu from class 6 to class 9 during 2013-14 in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
