Mangalore; August 30: Believe it or not, about 475 Tulu textbooks which were sought by Puttur educational block for 8th standard, for the year 2013-14 are mysteriously missing. As nobody has a proper answer, confusions galore over the issue. After a long wait for a couple of months, the students who had preferred Tulu as third language have now opted for Hindi, which is another setback in the process of adding Tulu in academics.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Puttur Block Education Coordinator Naveen said that though they have sent an indent for 475 textbooks, they have not received the books. Blaming the Karnataka Textbook Formulation Committee, he said: “The problem has occurred in State-level. The committee has made the indent zero, though we had sent the exact number of required books. So, there is no question of printing. Now we have bought Hindi textbooks from other blocks,” he said.
The District Textbook Nodal Officer Shankarappa Mudnal has also confirmed the same. “We have asked the Committee, but they claim that they have already sent the books. Something is wrong in somewhere. We have asked about the press which had the responsibility of printing books. Hopefully they will go through this at the earliest,” he said.
‘Books sent’
When asked about the matter, the Karnataka Textbook Formulation Committee Assistant Director Shobha claimed that the committee has already sent required number of books. “We have got confirmation from the district textbook nodal officer. I don’t know why this confusion arose. If they want extra textbooks, they can submit a letter with details and we are ready to provide the requirement,” she said.
There were rumours that some schools in Mangalore town also didn’t get the textbooks for 8th standard, but Mangalore town ECO Balakrishna has confirmed that they have got the books in time. DK District Deputy Director of Public Instructions Moses Jayashekar said that the responsibility is on educational blocks in preparing indent and collecting books. “We just forward the indent sent by the BEOs,” he said.
Hapless response
Both in DK and Udupi district, the efforts to introduce Tulu as third language has got poor response. In DK, only Mangalore North and Puttur blocks have sent the indent for the books. Mangalore North had sent indent for 8th and 9th standard (30 textbooks each). Puttur block had sent indent for most number of books including 170 books (Class 6), 265 (Class 7), 265 (Class7- semester 2), 475 (Class 8) and 183 (Class 9).
Bantwal, Belthangady, Mangalore South, Moodbidri and Sullia blocks haven’t sent the indent at all. Sullia BEO Malleswamy said that students are not ready to study Tulu as third language. “We have not sent indent because nobody is interested in studying Tulu as an additional language as well. We don’t have teachers to teach Tulu as well. Though Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had assured of training teachers, it is meaningless if only two to three students opt for the language,” he added.
In Udupi, the response is pitiful. Not even a single school has asked for a Tulu textbook out of the five blocks. Udupi DDPI Nagendra Madhyastha says that there is not much value for additional language and it becomes too heavy for students to learn Tulu as an additional language. “For the next year, I have asked all BEOs to send the indent by September 14. If we receive any, we will send it to the State committee,” he said.
Same thing to continue?
DK DDPI Moses Jayashekar says that parents and students don’t opt Tulu because they fear that it would cause problem in SSLC and they prefer Hindi. The situation may not change next year too if the education department and Tulu Sahitya Academy won’t sketch some other plan which would benefit students more.
DHN
