As many as 45 changes in the Kannada and Social Studies textbooks, prescribed for classes between VI and X, were approved in the State Cabinet on Thursday that included the dropping of lessons on RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar that were added by the previous BJP government.
A lesson written by Chakravarthi Sulibele was also dropped, while the Cabinet cleared adding back lessons on Savitribai Phule, B.R. Ambedkar, and Jawaharlal Nehru that had been dropped in the process of textbook revision undertaken by the previous BJP government.
Booklets before end of June
Ruling out the withdrawal of the entire textbooks that have been distributed to students already, the government has decided to issue supplementary booklets containing 45 changes based on the recommendation by a five-member expert committee that had been set up earlier. The committee included Rajappa Dalwoy, Ravish Kumar, T.R. Chandrashekar, Ashwathnarayan, and Rajesh. The supplementary booklets will reach the students of about 75,000 schools across the State before the end of June.
“By the time our government was formed, the textbooks had already reached students. To recall them and print new textbooks would involve high costs. There has been a precedence of providing supplementary booklets and we will start the distribution of booklets in a few days. Before the end of this month, booklets will reach the students,” Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa told presspersons in the post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday.
Full revision next year
“Essentially, we have retained what was there before textbook revision. We are including what the BJP government had dropped and we are dropping what they had added. In fact, many minor changes that were required won’t be done for now. A new textbook revision committee will be formed in a month and based on the recommendation, textbooks will be revised from the next academic year.” He indicated that the supplementary booklets could be about 15 pages.
The Minister said that besides sending the supplementary booklets, teachers would also be informed on the lessons that should be not taught in classrooms and the lessons that should be taught.
Preamble to be made compulsory in school
The Cabinet on Thursday decided to make the reading of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution mandatory in all schools in Karnataka. Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa said it was important for all students to understand the Preamble, and it would be made compulsory for children of all classes to read it in school. Likewise, he said the Cabinet had decided to make it mandatory for all government and semi-government institution to display a copy of the Preamble in the offices.
