The Curriculum Committee (Kerala State Education Department) has decided to make cosmetic changes to the Malayalam textbook in Social Science for the seventh standard and rewrite the English version.
The Committee members who approved the English version earlier should resign from the committee for permitting the printing of such a textbook. If the committee members had bothered to read the book, they would not have sent it for printing not to speak of distribution to pupils.
The Director of State Council for Education, Research and Training could not also disown responsibility. (See earlier posts on the multiplicity of errors in the textbook including the distortion of the writings of Jawaharlal Nehru and A. K. Gopalan. The address of Nehru to Parliament was also mutilated.)
The director writes to the students in the beginning of the text as follows:
Dear students,
It is by interacting with the varied fields of society that we learn Social Science. This text is designed with this objective. We encounter very many issued in the immediate vicinity of life….
…. Let us proceed with bettering the activities grounded on your response and date collections, discourses, debates and analysis.
With love and regards (no punctuation)
The Director could have communicated with the students in a simpler manner:
We learn Social Science by interacting with the society and its varied activities. This textbook is designed to facilitate that. We come across many issues in our locality….
Well, if that is what he meant.
As mentioned in earlier posts, the Malayalam version too is not free of deficiencies/errors of language and translation. However, the committee has not expressly announced a decision to correct them. It has also not decided to change the emphasis on violent side of the freedom struggle.
The textbook fails to highlight the non-violent character of the struggle led by Gandhiji. Besides, an attempt has been made to create a different impression by referring to Gandhi’s call to “do or die”. This ought to be corrected and the freedom struggle put in the correct perspective.
Finally, without comment: