KARACHI, April 12: The Sindh Textbook Board has taken immediate steps to expurgate objectionable and unsavoury materials from its two school textbooks, which were prepared under the Asian Development Bank funded Middle School Project, said official sources.
It was learnt that as immediate measures, the STB field officers had been deputed to ensure correction in the two textbooks, which were already in the market. Booksellers and school teachers can also erase or cover the errors, which have been examined and found problematic by the authorities, an STB official added, saying that necessary notification would also be issued soon in this regard.
In view of the reports regarding alleged inconsistencies in textbooks, the STB high-ups once again reviewed a couple of sentences towards which their attention was drawn.
The books containing unpleasant remarks concerning martyrdom and about the ideology of Pakistan are Social Studies book for Class-VIII and Urdu book for Class VII.
Recently, the Punjab chief minister also ordered for expurgation of certain contents of the books published by the Punjab Textbook Board and to halt the distribution of such books and carry out corrections.
When contacted, the STB Chairman Mushtaq H. Qureshi, told Dawn on Monday that it would not be possible to withdraw the books in question from market or schools, but arrangements had been made and approved by the Sindh education minister to carry out necessary corrections, which were small in size. The two books in question after necessary correction would be published afresh next year.
"The Social Studies book for Class-VIII contained a sentence that the ideology of Pakistan was the creation of Hindu organization, which was objectionable from our point of view," he noted saying that the sentence in question would stand as deleted.
Referring to the use of word, Inhedam (demolition) for Babri Mosque (India), he said that the word would be replaced with Shahadat (martyrdom). In the Urdu textbook for Class-VII, he said, there was a sentence that a companion of the holy prophet was killed, which should be read as "Aap sahaba ko shaheed kiya gaya".
To a question, Mr Qureshi said that books pertaining to Class-VI to VIII were developed by the Middle School Project, involving scholars and education officials from all over the country.
The manuscript of Urdu book in question was prepared and reviewed twice by the groups of language experts and senior educationists, under the project executers, who took all possibl measures to make it acceptable in our context and fit for Pakistani students.
However, he said that the publisher STB did not absolve itself in such responsibility and that was why he took immediate notice of the issue and ordered correction immediately.
He said that in the given condition, the STB could not halt the distribution of these books, but, it would ensure corrections at the level of wholesalers and private publishers who were in possession of the stock of both books.
Mr Qureshi said that actions were taken after getting permission from the education minister. He claimed that none of the organizations had made any formal presentation to the board regarding the alleged erroneous books.
Besides, he said that the STB had published some more books as revised or modified editions under a federal government requirement, and tagged those as test editions, with the sole purpose to receive valuable opinions from discerning parents, learned teachers and concerned citizens for bringing about improvement in the next edition.
