Mangalore University has proposed to introduce a postgraduation course in Tulu and introduce it as an optional subject in the undergraduate level.
The Registrar (Administration) of the university has issued a notification constituting a seven-member committee for drafting syllabi and regulations. It is headed by Abhaya Kumar, a professor of Kannada.
Earlier, the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had written to the university appealing it to offer a masters degree in Tulu and provide a chance to undergraduate students to study it as one among the three optional subjects in the degree level.
Mr. Kumar said that the committee was now collecting subject matters required to frame the syllabi. It would submit the draft syllabi and draft regulations to the university so that the university could offer them from the academic year 2018-19.
In her December 21, 2016, letter to the university, the then president of the academy M. Janaki Brahmavar said that as Tulu has been introduced in the school level since 2010-11 from class VI to X, the schools required qualified teachers to teach Tulu. So far, two batches of class X students, who have studied Tulu as the third optional language, have passed out. The third batch was passing out in 2017-18. About 1,000 students studied Tulu in 20 schools.
She said that the academy has already written to the government to teach Tulu in PU-level for which the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education has shown positive response.
She said in the 2011 census, about 20 lakh people have registered their mother tongue as Tulu. It is estimated that about one crore people spoke Tulu in the world.
The academy said that Kannur University, University of Kerala, Madras University, Mumbai University, Osmania University, Kuppam Dravidian University, University of Tubigen, Germany, and University of Turku, Finland have included Tulu in their academic programmes.
She said that according to some linguists, Tulu is about 2,000 years old.
