KARACHI, June 9: A large number of O level students and their teachers are unaware about the status of Urdu textbook, which had reportedly been found containing some offending material.
A survey of schools imparting O-level education and the main book bazaar of Karachi by Dawn revealed that Cambridge International Examination or The British Council, Pakistan, had not issued any circular regarding withdrawal of First Language Urdu (GCE O-level) textbook titled ‘Pakistani Kahanian’.
The Ministry of Education on Tuesday had said that it had taken up the matter pertaining to inclusion of ‘objectionable material’ with the CIE and the BC for the review of curriculum of Urdu (GCE O-level) textbook and decided to remove objectionable material.
“We have no information that the book has been discarded by the federal education ministry for any reason,” said a coordinator for O-level education at the main office of a group of private schools in the city.
The coordinator said that if there was any problem in the book, the CIE should have informed the schools and all other concerned at the earliest in the interest of its students.
Booksellers said that there was no official notification about imposition of any ban on Pakistani Kahanian, as reported in a section of press, but they were confused about the fate of the related stock.
Expressing views on the reports that federal education ministry had offered the CIE and the BC to avail themselves of its services for reviewing the entire lot of books prescribed for Pakistani students taking O or A levels education, booksellers said that the process would add to the chaos and therefore it would be advisable that authorities should confined to some of the books and not all.
Parents were of the view that a review was needed not only in the case of CIE textbooks but those printed by other private publishers and used by so called big private schools. “There is a need to review the contents and styles of many of the books on social sciences, English and Urdu literatures and novels, history and Islamiat,” they added, claiming that all being dished out from the desk of local and foreign writers was not good entirely for the minds of Pakistani school-goers.
A local facilitator in O/A levels learning recalled that about five to six months back too, some quarters had objected to the inclusion of some materials in the prose section of the book meant for A-levellers.
An official of The British Council, Karachi, said that they had not received any directive from the CIE on the issue.
In the meantime, a responsible person from the office of publishers of Pakistani Kahanian told Dawn that his firm had not been intimated by the CIE or the BC that the book had been banned or a couple of its topics had been scrapped out.
He said that his firm had not been contacted by the government so far and he felt that publisher had nothing to do regarding withdrawal of the book, as it was between the government and the CIE. “We have prepared and marketed the books in line with the curriculum given by the CIE,” he added, saying that if the CIE agreed that some of the materials or topics were offending it should issue a fresh curriculum for the future.
He said that he did not know exactly about the objectionable material, if any, in Pakistani Kahanian as his firm had not been approached by any quarter on the issue or pointed out any deficiency so far.