SOUTH
The Karnataka government has decided to revise textbooks from first up to tenth standard, ten years after the last review.
This usual practice has once again gotten mired in accusations and politics. The Congress has alleged that the textbooks have been 'saffronized' by the previous BJP government. The government has formed a textbook revision committee headed by Baraguru Ramachandrappa.
The previous textbooks were crafted in 2005 based on the revised educational policy of the central government. At that time there were some allegations that the text was saffronized. After the allegations, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted an assessment, denied the allegations and approved the textbooks.
Now the same allegation has again been made, and revised texts are going to be 'rectified' from the next academic year.
The present revision committee has said that it is going to remove some points that are unscientific and that go against the Constitution and reform the textbook as per the guidelines of the NCERT.
However, the committee has not given any explanation to the former education minister’s questions; it has even failed to provide instances of ‘saffronization’ induced in the textbook by the previous government.
As a counter, Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri, BJP leader and former Education Minister, has asked the revision committee to disclose all discovered 'saffronizing' elements in the old textbooks.
He urged the board to allow a public debate on the alleged saffronisation before making any revision.
“The Congress government is still clinging to the slavery of the British. It has not yet come out of the education system prescribed by the British for its colonies. The nation has got freedom, but Congress has not yet come from its slavery towards Gandhi family," Kageri said.
Ironically allegations are swarming in the social media that the committee is biased and is revising the textbook to endorse the stands and decisions of the present government. For example, the tenth standard Social Sciences textbook asks students to - "name temples built by Tipu Sultan".
The decision by the Congress to celebrate Tipu Sultan as a great king has been the centre of a massive controversy, with heavy religious overtones, in Karnataka.