Bengaluru: The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has decided to introduce Kannada as a compulsory subject for all the first-year students.

This means that engineering students will now have to mandatorily pass the Kannada language test to move into the next semester. Until now, Kannada had been an add-on subject (in which attendance was compulsory, but taking the exam was not); but it will henceforth be included as a credit course. Also, the University will ensure that the results make it into the final mark sheet.

As a majority of VTU students are from other States, the Kannada lessons were so far aimed at helping students get over the language barrier in their everyday interactions.

VTU Vice-Chancellor Dr. Karisiddappa confirmed the development: “Until now, we had two types of Kannada lessons — the advanced level for Kannada-speaking students and basic lessons for students who don’t speak Kannada. Now, we will introduce Kannada as a Credit Course for first-year students.”

The University, which has more than 220 affiliated Colleges, plans to compulsorily have Kannada classes for four   hours per week. Registrar H.N. Jagannatha Reddy said, “The decision was taken by the Higher Education Council and in this ‘Kannada Kali’ initiative, we will encourage the non-Kannada speaking students to learn the language. This is going to be a main subject for first and second semester students and they need to take it seriously.”