The State government’s notification effecting a few modifications in the revised school textbooks following objections by public representatives and others, has failed to put an end to the controversy.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, various educationists and writers have criticised the government’s notification on modification. They have demanded that the entire revised textbook should be withdrawn instead of making only a few corrections.
The Union of Backward and Dalit Mutt Seers met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday and submitted the memorandum seeking repealing of the textbooks, which are revised by the Rohith Chakratirhta-headed committee.
Mr. Siddaramaiah slammed the government through a series of tweets. He said: “The government must take a decision on the future of our students, without any false prestige. The only solution is to return the new textbook and get the old text for the current academic year without any controversy.”
“There are mistakes in each and every page of the revised textbook. However, justifying the flawed textbooks only shows the government’s stubbornness. The government is issuing different statements every day and trying to cover up its mistake. Should the recommendation of a textbook revision committee not discarded when the committee itself is repealed?” he questioned.
Educationist V.P. Niranjanaradhya told The Hindu: “Some outside forces have created the school textbook row. The government is dancing on their direction. The Rohith Chakratirtha-headed textbook revision committee is an unconstitutional one. We do not endorse these minimal corrections. So, the government should maintain status quo and withdraw the revised textbooks. Keep the Baragur Ramachandrappa-headed committee textbooks for this academic year also. The government should form the third party expert committee to revise the school textbooks again.”
S.G. Siddaramaiah, former president of Kannada Development Authority, said: “The Rohith Chakratirtha-headed committee had been formed to verify some particular lessons in the school textbooks and report to the government. But, this committee has unconstitutionally revised all the textbooks from Class I to X. Following serious outrage, the government has dissolved that textbook committee. In the same way, the government must dissolve that committee report about school textbooks. We don’t agree with minor corrections.”
