JOIN USAmid pressure, Karnataka drops plan to revise PU textbooks
Annoyed with the never-ending controversy over the revised school textbooks, the Karnataka government has dropped its plans to update the Pre-University (PU) course material.
Although the job to revise the PU textbooks was assigned to the Rohith Chakratirtha committee - whose work on the school textbooks has run into rough weather - Primary & Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh told DH that the government has dropped the idea for now.
"We are not revising the PUC textbooks now," Nagesh said.
According to sources from the department of pre university education, the revised content for PU courses is ready. However, the U-turn now is aimed at containing further damage amid pressure from civil society and the Congress.
"As the committee headed by Rohith Chakratirtha has been dissolved, the revision of textbooks will not be done and the same books will continue," Nagesh added.
Documents show that Nagesh had sent a note to the principal secretary (primary & secondary education) on February 17 this year that the responsibility of revising the PU textbooks should be given to the Chakratirtha committee. The principal secretary wrote to the PU director and the PU department communicated this to the experts who were involved in revising the history textbook earlier to seek their opinions.
The Akhila Bharata Brahmana Mahasabha had raised an objection on chapter 4.2 in the II PU History textbook against some portions that "hurt" the emotions of the Brahmin community. Nagesh's predecessor S Suresh Kumar had assured the community that the matter would be looked into.
'Fresh revision based on public feedback'
Fresh revision of the new textbooks will be based on public opinions. And, for this purpose, the government will put drafts of the texts revised by all the three committees in public domain, Primary & Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh said after meeting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday.
"Let people compare all the three versions and decide who dropped what and added what. In case they find any errors, objections can be submitted to Karnataka Text Book Society," he said.
According to Nagesh, copies of textbooks revised by the Rohith Chakratirtha committee are already available in public domain and it will take 10 days to upload the version by the two previous committees headed by Baraguru Ramachandrappa and G S Mudambadithaya.