The Hindu : National : Demand for removal of textbook with errors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

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National

Demand for removal of textbook with errors

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD, SEPT. 28. Some voluntary organisations and parents of standard VIII students in Gujarat have demanded the immediate withdrawal of a social science textbook which has allegedly shown Kashmir as part of Pakistan on the map of India printed on the back of the book.

They also listed more than 100 "blunders" in the book, which they said was replete with "factual inaccuracies, distortions of historical facts, manipulative statements and highly discriminatory writings." The book, published by the State Board of School Textbooks, was introduced in the current academic year.

Prashant, an Ahmedabad-based voluntary organisation that studied the errors in the textbook, alleged that it was an example of the "communalisation of education" in the State, being highly "biased against the minorities, the tribals and other backward classes."

Distorted facts

Father Cedric Prakash, director of Prashant, and some parents told a media conference today that such textbooks taught wrong facts to children who are expected to replicate the textbook material word-for-word in exams.

The chapters on history fed wrong information by presenting distorted facts qualifying them by phrases like "it was believed," or attributing them to "some sources."

The organisation proposed to launch a "public movement" to force the Government to withdraw such a factually wrong textbook.

It would also consider filling a public interest litigation for the book's withdrawal, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad St. Xaviers' College Society has, in a letter to the Governor, Nawal Kishore Sharma, requested him to protect the institution's minority character which was "threatened" by the State Government.

The Society secretary and principal of the St. Xaviers' College, said the Government had threatened to withdraw grants to the institution if it refused to follow the reservation policy and roster system of promotion.

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