Errors in textbooks: Corrections to be sent to schools in two weeks

The books are riddled with spelling errors and factual mistakes

A page from one of the revised State syllabus textbooks.

After numerous complaints were raised about the revised textbooks for the State syllabus, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education has decided to revise all 511 titles and send the corrections to schools within the next two weeks.

The textbooks, revised by a committee headed by writer Baragur Ramachandrappa, have issues ranging from spelling errors to factual mistakes. Moreover, teachers and educationalists have pointed out to substandard printing and poor quality of paper used.

Mr. Ramachandrappa, chairman of the Text Book Revision Committee, conceded to spelling mistakes in the textbooks, but said there were less than a handful of factual errors. He said the committee had taken up a voluntary review of all the 511 new texts to point out errors — both spelling mistakes and factual errors. “In another 10 days, we will get a list of all the errors which will be sent to all schools in the State to factor them in during teaching,” he said.

However, school managements are livid that the quality of the textbooks are so dismal despite the committee taking two years to revise them. In fact, teachers said the committee seems to have been under pressure to publish the books before the school reopened, leading to the errors.

“We hope corrections will be made promptly and schools and teachers will be intimated about them,” said a teacher.

Urging the department to immediately review all the books, make the corrections and issue circulars to all schools, D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said the association had requested the Education Department to take back the poor quality books and replace them with better ones.

“The committee sat for two years to revise the textbooks books for Class 1 to Class 10, yet there are so many issues with them. While pages are missing from some books, in some cases, pages are blank or have ink running over the writing. Added to this is the content errors. We had much hope that the committee would give us textbooks on a par with NCERT books, but we have been let down,” he said.