Kerala - Kochi   

Revised textbook portions to be issued

KOCHI: The distribution of nearly five lakh copies of the revised portions in the controversial Social Sciences textbook for Class VII will begin on Monday.

The changes were effected on the basis of the recommendations made by the curriculum committee of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).

Six new pages printed at the Kerala Books and Publications Society (KBPS) based at Kakkanad will be distributed as a booklet in thousands of schools across the State. The process is likely to be completed by the end of August.

A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Director of Public Instructions, who received the booklet here on Saturday, told The Hindu that the printing of the English version of the Social Sciences textbook would begin at the KBPS on Monday.

The State government had withdrawn the English version following widespread complaints about grammatical errors in the textbook. The Education Department will hand over the CD containing the new chapters of the English version to the KBPS authorities on Sunday evening.

The controversial title Mathamillatha Jeevan does not figure in the corrected version. The new title is Viswasa Swathantriyam (Freedom of Belief).

The names Jeevan, Lakshmikutty and Anwar Rasheed — the name of the boy who comes to take admission in school, his mother and father respectively — have given way to ‘boy’ and ‘parents’ in the revised lesson, which will have a pointer to what the Constitution says about secularism.

Instead of the portion of Nehru’s Will, a portion of a speech on secularism made by Nehru in 1961 has been included in the lesson. The revised lesson also features the sayings of Sree Narayana Guru on religion and harmony.

The decisions of the curriculum committee were based on the recommendations in the interim report of the K.N. Panikkar Committee.

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