Various student organisations on Tuesday held a protest against the recent textbook revision in the State, demanding that the government immediately revert to the old textbooks and that Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B.C. Nagesh be sacked.
The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike also held a protest demonstration at Freedom Park demanding the same.
Kishan Devaiah, State convener, All-India Students’ Association, said that accessing education itself was a serious concern in rural areas, where access to textbooks, uniforms, and bicycles were still an issue, leading to large-scale dropouts, the State government was only interested in imposing its ideology on the masses in the form of textbooks.
Vasudeva Reddy, State secretary of Students’ Federation of India (SFI), demanded that the government should go back to the textbooks revised under the chairmanship of Baragur Ramachandrappa, until the new ones are framed under the new National Curriculum Framework.
“The Rohith Chakrathirtha-led committee has done everything in secrecy. We need a transparent and democratic process,” he said.
T.A. Narayana Gowda, president, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, came down heavily on the newly revised textbooks for projecting regionalism and language pride as anti-national.
“How dare the committee includes texts that are anti-Kannada in the State’s textbooks,” he questioned, and demanded all changes be discarded and that the government revert to the old textbooks.
“Mr. Chakrathirtha has also insulted Kuvempu, our State anthem, and also senior writers like Devanur Mahadeva and Mr. Ramachandrappa. Action must be initiated against him immediately,” he said.
