Members of Karnatak College Alumni Association and former English teachers who taught Functional English have urged Karnatak University not to scrap the Functional English course offered at the graduation level.
Students of the first batch of Functional English (1994-97) course and teachers who taught them made this appeal during a reunion programme held at the college on Thursday.
Speaking at the programme, the former Principal of Karnatak College Veena Shanteshwar recalled that the programme was introduced to prepare students to handle quickly different situations, in the wake of globalisation.
The course was aimed at helping students to improve their communicative skills so that they had a comparatively easy entry to the job market. In fact, during those days, teachers had to make a lot of efforts to identify suitable reference books and to frame syllabus, she said.
Under the Functional English course, final year students had to mandatorily submit a thesis, recalled V.S. Kulkarni. Going down memory lane, retired teachers S.R. Balundagi, V.V. Mulgund and R.L. Jadar recalled the circumstances that compelled the university to offer the course.
Karnatak College was one among the three colleges in the State that were chosen to introduce the course.
The first batch of students, now in different professions, who are meeting after 27 years, narrated how the course helped them make a career.
Sukanya Jalihal, P. Subrahmany Bhat and Mukund Lamani pointed out that university is now offering the course as an open elective from 2021. The alumni urged the teachers to take up the issue with the university and prevail upon the Vice-Chancellor to ensure that it is offered as a regular subject. The alumni felicitated the teachers and also planted saplings on the college premises to mark the occasion.
