BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has proposed forming a committee of teachers and experts to review the textbooks of Class 1 to Class 10 for communally sensitive topics.
The committee will scan the social studies and language textbooks to avoid any content that can hurt the sentiments of any community.
The proposal comes in light of recent representations sent to the minister of primary and secondary education S Suresh Kumar by members of a community about passages in Class 6 social science textbooks.
On Saturday, the minister said he received a call two months ago about some objectionable portions on Buddhism and Jainism. He said the problematic sections will be removed, but the portions on Buddhism and Jainism will remain.
“I want to assure everyone that only the contentious content will be removed, but not the entire section on Buddhism and Jainism,” he said.
Section leading to chapters will be removed: Minister
Lord Buddha and Lord Mahavira deeply influence us in everyday life, and we cannot even imagine deleting the entire chapters. However, the section leading to the chapters was pointed out to be problematic and will be removed,” Suresh Kumar said.
He added the paragraph leading to the chapters talks about caste and other matters that are beyond the understanding of class 6 students. “We must ensure these kids are taught everything positive about society and nothing that can lead to hatred. The government has no intention of discrediting or insulting any religion. These textbooks were written before our government came to power,” he said.