Govt ‘corrects’ a few textbook errors

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

With an aim to placate the critics, the Karnataka government has decided to ‘correct’ some of the errors in the revised textbooks. The order issued by HS Shivakumar, Under Secretary with the Primary and Secondary Education Department, on Monday said eight corrections were incorporated in the textbooks.

The textbook revision, carried out by a committee headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha, has drawn huge flak from academics, intellectuals, politicians and seers of various mutts. They alleged that the revision was an attempt to saffronise the syllabus. They even pointed out several mistakes in the revised textbooks.

The major correction is the addition of the phrase ‘architect of the Constitution’ to B R Ambedkar in the chapter titled ‘Our Constitution’ in the Class 9 social science (part - 1) textbook.

The section ‘Bhakti sect and Sufi saints’, which was dropped from Class 7 social science (part - 1) textbook earlier, will be reinstated.

The Class 9 social science textbook will have a correction on Basavanna in the chapter regarding the reformers of faith in India, while the controversial statement that Kuvempu was called a famous poet because of the encouragement of many will also be dropped from the Class 4 textbook on environment.

Moreover, pictures of Kuvempu and Huilgol Narayan Rao will be added in a chapter on the unification of Karnataka in Class 7 social science textbook.

The two paragraphs and six lines in the chapter titled ‘rise of new religions’ in the Social Science textbook for Class 6 will be restored. Details on Surapur Nayaks and the contribution of Adichunchanagiri and Siddaganaga Mutts will be reinstated.

The department stated that the corrigendum is a normal practice to correct mistakes. “A copy of the corrigendum will be given to all schools free of cost. The soft copies of the textbooks on the department website will incorporate these corrections,” the note said.