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Experts see textbooks promoting `half-truths'

Special Correspondent

Centre urged to stop funding Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: Educational experts analysing textbooks of secondary classes in Rajasthan have called for their withdrawal in view of their "objectionable'' content -- promoting hatred and prejudices against Dalits and minorities -- and asked the Centre to stop funding the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the State.

The experts, who attended a State-level workshop on the State Secondary Education Board's textbooks here over the weekend, felt that the books formed part of the ruling BJP's larger agenda for social mobilisation on communal lines by invoking religious symbols and sentiments.

The textbooks, especially those on sociology and political science taught to senior secondary students, extol "virtues'' of fascism and caste hierarchy, hold "appeasement of minorities'' responsible for terrorism and project the founders of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as "visionary leaders''.

The participants in the workshop, organised by the People's Union for Civil Liberties and 20 other civil rights bodies, decided to apprise the teachers, students, parents, and the public at large of the dangerous consequences of "polluting young minds'' through half-truths and distortion of facts.

Vinod Raina, Member of the Knowledge Commission, said the contents of textbooks went not only against the spirit of the Constitution but also the Central Government's Common Minimum Programme. He said the Union Human Resource Ministry should exert pressure on the State Government to withdraw textbooks.

Apoorvanand of Delhi University's Hindi Department said the textbooks, designed by the State Secondary Education Board after rejecting the NCERT curriculum, were promoting prejudices and intolerance among the impressionable adolescents. The groups promoting secular ethos should unite to oppose such books, he added.

Smriti of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, said the textbooks violated the National Curriculum Framework-2005 by failing to focus on activity-based teaching and encourage students to do any kind of reflective or critical thinking.

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