JOIN USKarnataka government drops chapter on Tipu Sultan from Class 7 book
The state government's decision to trim the textbooks for this academic year 2020-21 in the backdrop of delay in commencing the academic year due to Covid-19 pandemic has led to the exit of chapter on Tipu Sultan--the 'Tiger of Mysuru' from the textbooks of Class 7. However, the government has decided to retain similar chapters on Tipu Sultan in 6th and 10th Classes.
Coping with the pandemic and trying to balance the syllabus with the remaining period of the academic year, the education department has recently trimmed the syllabus in text books for all classes from 1 to 10th. Currently text books in 6th, 7th and 10th grades have chapters on Tipu Sultan.
The trimmed textbooks uploaded on the website of the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) by Karnataka state Textbook Society revealed removal of chapters on Tipu Sultan for the seventh grade. Justifying the decision, officials said, "students study similar chapters in Class 6 and more in the 10th grade." Yet another senior official from the Text Book Society said, "Trimming does not mean we have removed half of the syllabus from textbooks. It is only keeping in mind the repetition we have condensed the chapters. In case students study about a particular dynasty in higher grades, then the same had been removed from lower grades."
A few months ago, there was an uproar over dropping of content on Tipu Sultan and MLAs from the ruling BJP also demanded the same and petitioned to the Chief Minister. Even an expert committee led by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa suggested to not drop any content on the historic figure. However, the department still decided to drop lessons from one of the classes while keeping the syllabus short for the next 120 active academic days.