Post-row, trimmed syllabus on Tipu to be put on hold

The government has asked the Karnataka Textbook Society (KTBS) to put on hold the trimmed syllabus of books that omitted chapters on Tipu Sultan.

Following criticism from various quarters over trimming of the textbooks, especially over deleting Tipu-related chapters, the government has asked KTBS to put the same on hold temporarily.Considering the reduced academic days available for the current academic year due to Covid-19, KTBS trimmed the textbooks for classes 1 to 10. Some, sections including lessons about Tipu in Class 7 and the Indian Constitution, were dropped. Entire lessons on Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed were dropped for classes six and seven in the reduced syllabi.

Sources in the Department of Public Instruction said the office of Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar had told KTBS to temporarily put the revised syllabus on hold.

They have been asked to relook into the matter and submit a report to Kumar.

“On Wednesday morning, we received oral instructions to put trimmed syllabus on hold and by evening, we received official directions from the minister to withdraw the contents uploaded on a website,” said an official source from KTBS.

The syllabus was reduced to 120 working days for Classes 1-10 as many academic days are reduced for the 2020-2021 year. KTBS had uploaded the trimmed contents for the reference of teachers and withdrew the same late on Wednesday evening.This trimming of textbooks has received opposition from various people including teachers, private school managements and elected representatives.

Issuing a clarification, Suresh Kumar said, “It was decided to trim the contents scientifically from class 1 to 10 in all subjects. But as there is no final decision on availability of academic days, we have not finalised the trimming of textbooks.”

He even said that the government will not cut any content unnecessarily or unscientifically.

“The officials of the department were instructed to frame teaching modules suitable for mass media or digital teaching. But even before finalising the new version, by mistake, the same was uploaded on the website,” he added.

Kumar confirmed that the officials were told to withdraw the contents uploaded on the website. “There is no question of hiding information relating to any particular person, document or historical event,” he said.

Lessons pertaining to Tipu Sultan had led to controversy last academic year and the government constituted an expert committee, which recommended not to drop the same.

Earlier, the trimmed textbooks had been uploaded on the website of the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) by Karnataka State Textbook Society showed removal of chapters on Tipu Sultan for class 7. Justifying the decision, officials had said, “Children study a (similar) chapter in class 6 and more in class 10.”

A senior official from the Textbook Society had said, “Trimming does not mean we have removed half of the syllabus from textbooks. It is only keeping in mind the repetition that we have condensed the chapters. In case students study about a particular dynasty in higher grades, the same has been removed in lower grades.”

A few months ago, there was an uproar over the demand for dropping chapters on Tipu Sultan. The MLAs from the ruling BJP had demanded removal of the chapters and petitioned Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in this regard.

An expert committee led by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa had suggested not to drop any content on Tipu.