Mangaluru: Burdened with paying salary to those who teach Tulu in schools, the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy has now appealed to the State government to appoint guest teachers for teaching the language to students.

Academy president A.C. Bhandary met the Principal Secretary, Primary and Secondary Education, recently and apprised the official of the need to appoint guest teachers to teach Tulu from Class VI to Class X in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Mr. Bhandary told The Hindu that the academy has been paying ₹ 3,000 each per month to those teachers who taught Tulu as the third optional language. If the government appointed guest teachers, they would get a minimum of ₹ 7,000 per month. It would be an encouragement for teachers too. The Principal Secretary told him that she would get a status report on Tulu teaching from the department before taking a decision.

According to B. Chandrahasa Rai, registrar of the academy, Tulu was taught in 35 schools in 2017-18 with 1,647 students.

As four more schools, three in Belthangady taluk and one in Mangaluru taluk, have now come forward to teach Tulu, the number of students studying the langauge would be more than 2,000 in the current academic year.

Mr. Bhandary said that the academy would make efforts to ensure that at least 50 schools taught Tulu from the current academic year. As more schools taught the language, the academy required more fund for paying teachers. It would naturally force the academy to cut grants for other Tulu activities.

Hence, the government has been requested to intervene. The government has, through an order on March 26, 2010, allowed schools in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts to teach Tulu from Class VI. The first batch of all 18 Class X students with Tulu as the third optional language passed in 2015. It was followed by 25 students in 2016, 283 students in 2017 and 416 students in 2018 thus registering 100 % pass.

The 416 students who passed this year were from 22 schools. Of them, 89 scored 100 marks, 24 scored 99, and 107 scored between 90 and 98 marks.

Mr. Rai said that 700 students are expected to opt for Tulu as the third optional language in the SSLC examinations next year.