Teachers, writers irked over errors in high school Urdu humanities textbooks

Teachers and Urdu writers have pointed out errors in the revised textbooks in humanities for high school students in English and Urdu medium.

“Textbook writers have committed some basic conceptual mistakes. For example, in the history textbook for Class 9, it is wrongly stated that the Ghazni dynasty was founded by Alfthageen. It was Abu Mansur Sabuktigin, who established the sultanate. Secondly, Alptigin’s name has been wrongly spelt as Alfthageen. Sabuktigin was the son-in-law of Alptigin,” M.A. Samed Bharati, historian and retired teacher, said.

The textbook writers did not get the name of Mahmud Ghazni right. It was spelt as Mohammad. The two words had different meanings. “Spelling mistakes are aplenty in the textbook. Utbi has been written as Uthpi, Tajul Masir as Taj Masik and Minhaj-us-Siraj as Winha Jassi Siraj. There is no coherence between some paragraphs. A few sentences and paragraphs have been omitted, creating ambiguity. Most history textbooks need to be reworked,” Mr. Bharati said.

There are mistakes in the translation in Urdu medium textbooks, according to Urdu writer Mohammad Yousuf Raheem. Apparently, translators do not seem to have proficiency in Urdu language, he says.

In the social studies textbook for Class 6, south had been translated as north. In a chapter on fortification, the term Khandak or protective moat had been mentioned as gutter. Inappropriate use of prepositions had led to wrong interpretations, Mr. Raheem said.

In the social studies textbook for Class 9, 30 BC had been translated as 30 Hijri. “While BC stands for Before Christ, Hijri denotes the year of emigration of Prophet Mohammad and his followers to Madina in 622 AD. Therefore, there is a gap of 652 years between 30 BC and 30 Hijri,” he pointed out.

In another chapter, the West Indies had been wrongly identified as middle-east islands, he added.