Mangaluru: Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy has set up an expert committee involving eminent Beary writers and others to prepare textbooks for primary and high school students of the coastal districts, where the language will be introduced as a third language from the next academic year.

Speaking to the media Academy chairman Rahim Uchil said that a team of experts has already held meetings in Bengaluru in this regard.

The government has already given in principle approval to introduce Beary in schools. Following this, the academy has formed a committee of experts to implement the project. Professor A V Navada, writers Bhaskar Rai Kukkuvlli, Dr Annaaiah Kulal, Hamza Malar, Ismath Pajeer, Abdul Rehman Kuthethoor, Aysha, Abdul Rasheed and others have been included in the team to prepare textbooks in Beary. Within one month, the work on preparation of textbooks will be completed. Meanwhile, the government will print and distribute textbooks to schools,” Uchil said.

“For the first time, the state government has approved the inclusion of Beary as one of the third languages in schools. From next academic year itself, the language will be included as third language in schools for students from Class VI to X. It is a part of the academy’s various plans aimed at promoting Beary language and literature. Limiting Beary to holding cultural programmes on stages will not help promotion of the language. The academy will strive to bring due recognition for the language through various projects in the years to come. Very soon, the whole functioning of the academy will be digitised and people will be able to follow the activities online. We have plans to design a mobile app that will help all Beary speaking communities across the world to unite and share knowledge. Similarly, the academy also has plans to make all books published in Beary available online,” he added.