Bengaluru: VTU makes Kannada compulsory

Bengaluru: The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) issued a circular to all affiliated engineering colleges stating that teaching in Kannada will be compulsory.

In August, the university had announced that only government colleges under its ambit will be mandated to learn Kannada. According to the new circular, for the first year students pursuing B.Arch Kannada will be made a compulsory credit course, 3rd semester students in the B.Planning and B.E/B.Tech programmes starting from 2020-21 academic year and for the students who enter B.Planning, BE, BTech through lateral entry in the third year will also have to study Kannada.

"Kannada shall be considered for the vertical progression of students from an even semester to the subsequent odd semester,"' the circular states.

The government's textbook panel has come up with 'Samskruthika Kannada' for students who can speak, read and write Kannada. 'Balake Kannada' will be for those students who do not understand the Kannada language.

The university has asked all the universities to make necessary changes from the year 2020-2021, "All the autonomous colleges are requested to upload the scheme of teaching and examinations with the Kannada course incorporated for all the 4 years of Engineering and B.Plan programmes, and 5 years of architecture programme," the circular states.