By Shreya Bhandary
Mumbai: At a time when the education department is contemplating to file sedition charges against the members of the Board of Studies for printing a wrong Indian map in Class X Geography book, a group of teachers has pointed out 251 errors in Class X Urdu book and 537 in that of Class XII.
This in not the first time that errors have cropped up in Urdu texts. Earlier this year, a string of mistakes were found in the Class IX book.
This has happened at a time when the state education department is contemplating filing sedition charges over the Board of Studies (BOS) members who printed a map of India in the class X Geography textbook which showed Arunachal Pradesh as part of China's territory.
"I have spent the last few weeks checking every page of Class X and XII Urdu textbooks. I found 251 errors in the Class X book, and 537 mistakes in the Class XII book, which has only 128 pages," said Shafi Shaikh, ex-head, Arabic department, Mumbai University.
According to Shaikh, the books, which were released after the syllabi were upgraded this year, have grammatical and factual errors. Besides, names of writers have been printed wrong and erroneous meanings have been given to several Urdu terms. For example, nawaah has been referred to as dehaati hissah or 'rural portion', while its correct meaning is 'suburban area'. "Some of the content is also offensive to Muslims. Every time we take the name of the Prophet, it has to be followed by 'Peace be upon Him', but this bit is missing in parts of the books," said Shaikh. , who has compiled a list of errors and their corrections.
"Board of Studies members, who compiled the books, have mutilated them."
These mistakes have cropped up despite a group of Urdu teachers, principals and experts visiting the education department early this year to highlight mistakes in the Class IX book. "We handed over a list of errors in the Class IX book to ministers. Only those have been changed," This shows that the department has not made any effort to check for any more errors," said Najma Kazi, principal of Anjuman-I-Islam's Saif Tyabji Girls' School. Many principals have received complaints about this same issue from their teachers and are now feeling helpless.
As the education department has not offered any help so far, the Urdu Headmasters' Association is preparing an index of all the Class X and XII errors and corrections, which will be circulated to all Urdu schools. "We can't have children studying such material before appearing for their board exams," said Kazi.
Board secretary Sarjerao Jadhav told TOI the errors would be rectified when the new edition of the books would be sent for print for the next session. He said, "Those who write the books are experts. If they make errors, how can the board be blamed?" We hope that teachers will notice the errors and only teach the correct content in class," said Jadhav.
(Courtesy: The Times of India)
Mumbai: At a time when the education department is contemplating to file sedition charges against the members of the Board of Studies for printing a wrong Indian map in Class X Geography book, a group of teachers has pointed out 251 errors in Class X Urdu book and 537 in that of Class XII.
This in not the first time that errors have cropped up in Urdu texts. Earlier this year, a string of mistakes were found in the Class IX book.
This has happened at a time when the state education department is contemplating filing sedition charges over the Board of Studies (BOS) members who printed a map of India in the class X Geography textbook which showed Arunachal Pradesh as part of China's territory.
"I have spent the last few weeks checking every page of Class X and XII Urdu textbooks. I found 251 errors in the Class X book, and 537 mistakes in the Class XII book, which has only 128 pages," said Shafi Shaikh, ex-head, Arabic department, Mumbai University.
According to Shaikh, the books, which were released after the syllabi were upgraded this year, have grammatical and factual errors. Besides, names of writers have been printed wrong and erroneous meanings have been given to several Urdu terms. For example, nawaah has been referred to as dehaati hissah or 'rural portion', while its correct meaning is 'suburban area'. "Some of the content is also offensive to Muslims. Every time we take the name of the Prophet, it has to be followed by 'Peace be upon Him', but this bit is missing in parts of the books," said Shaikh. , who has compiled a list of errors and their corrections.
"Board of Studies members, who compiled the books, have mutilated them."
These mistakes have cropped up despite a group of Urdu teachers, principals and experts visiting the education department early this year to highlight mistakes in the Class IX book. "We handed over a list of errors in the Class IX book to ministers. Only those have been changed," This shows that the department has not made any effort to check for any more errors," said Najma Kazi, principal of Anjuman-I-Islam's Saif Tyabji Girls' School. Many principals have received complaints about this same issue from their teachers and are now feeling helpless.
As the education department has not offered any help so far, the Urdu Headmasters' Association is preparing an index of all the Class X and XII errors and corrections, which will be circulated to all Urdu schools. "We can't have children studying such material before appearing for their board exams," said Kazi.
Board secretary Sarjerao Jadhav told TOI the errors would be rectified when the new edition of the books would be sent for print for the next session. He said, "Those who write the books are experts. If they make errors, how can the board be blamed?" We hope that teachers will notice the errors and only teach the correct content in class," said Jadhav.
(Courtesy: The Times of India)