BENGALURU: In line with its election promise, the govt on Tuesday approved a
committee report
recommending changes in
school textbooks
.
In a circular, the govt gave approval for
revised textbooks
for Kannada I language (classes 1 to 10), Kannada III language (classes 9 and 10), and social science (classes 6 to 10) from the academic year 2024-25. The
textbook revision
ordered by the previous BJP regime, on recommendations of a committee headed by writer Rohith Chakratirtha, had come under allegations of saffronisation. When the Congress came to power, it set up an expert committee led by Manjunath G Hegde, a retired professor, for revising the textbooks.
As per the new committee's recommendations, the govt has approved the adoption, printing and distribution of 114 revised textbooks - 44 of
Kannada language
and 70 of social science in seven languages - for 2024-25, the circular stated.
The fresh changes the govt has approved is the reintroduction of writers' works - Girish Karnad's 'Adhikara', P Lankesh's 'Mruga Mattu Sundari', Devanuru Mahadeva's 'Edege Bidda Akshara', Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy's 'Samudra Chumbana', Chandrashekara Kambara's 'Seemi', Akkamahadevi's Vachanas, Devidasa's Chakragrahana, Mariyappa Bhatta's 'Namma Bhaashe', KV Tirumalesh and VG Bhat's children's poems, and an article by Nagesh Hegde in Kannada language textbooks.
As soon as the
Congress govt
took over in May last year, it approved 18 of the 40 changes suggested by another committee for immediate implementation. They included the removal of RSS founder KB Hedgewar's Nijavada Adarsha Purusha Yaragabeku in the class 10 Kannada textbook and KT Gatti's Kalavannu Geddavaru on Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar.
However, the Hegde committee hasn't changed anything about Tipu Sultan and has shifted some of the lessons to higher classes.
The revised textbooks will be made available on the Karnataka Textbook Society website after distribution to block education offices. The costs incurred for revision work will be covered from the grant available to KTBS.
The fresh additions include culture of Vedic period, rise of new religion, women who participated in the making of the Constitution, opportunities granted to sexual minorities, human rights and duties, rewritten chapter on the arrival of Europeans in India, introduction of Vishwaguru Basaveshwara as a cultural leader, addition of Kanaka Dasa, Purandara Dasa and Shishunala Sharif to Bhakti movement lessons, Pocso Act, Niti Aayog, and Bharat Ratna given to MS Swaminathan.
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