With schools set to reopen, minister Madhu Bangarappa says syllabus will be revised in phases

BENGALURU: With the debate over revision of school textbooks in the fore again, with schools reopening, Primary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa has said the textbooks will be revised in phases.

There is serious talk in the government circles and among education experts about revision of textbooks with many feeling that it should not be done now, especially since schools are all set to reopen from May 31. Moreover, 3.25 crore of the required 3.49 crore textbooks for 57 lakh students of government and aided schools have already been printed.

However, Minister Madhu Bangarappa told Public TV, “We will revise the syllabus in phases, as announced in our manifesto, and remove parts which will have a negative impact on the minds of children. We have already begun the process of revision of syllabus. We will proceed further after discussions with the CM and Deputy CM”.

On Monday, a group of writers had met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and urged that the school syllabus should be revised.

On the hijab issue, Madhu Bangarappa the matter is in court said he will speak about it after consulting legal experts. “Schools are reopening on Wednesday and the department has made all preparations for the start of the fresh academic year”, he said.

During the tenure of the previous BJP government, a committee headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha had revised the Kannada textbook for Classes 1 to 10 and the Social Science textbook for Classes 6-10. The revised textbook had lessons on RSS founder Hedgewar and a chapter on Bhagat Singh by writer Chakravarthi Sulibele.

The BJP government has put a stop to glorification of Tipu Sultan at the cost of the Mysore Wodeyars, as done by a committee headed by writer Baraguru Ramachandrappa, and instead highlighted the contributions of the Wodeyars. Changes were also made to a chapter on the ‘birth of new religions’ which mocked Vedic religions and Brahmins, and said Lord Indra used to heavily drink Somarasa. While Tipu, Tuglaqh and the Moghuls were glorified, the valour of Hindu kings was not mentioned at all, which the BJP government changed.

The Baraguru committee had also made various other changes to the Class 8 and 10 textbooks to exclude pictures of temples and introduce only pictures of churches and mosques, among other issues.