Karnataka puts syllabus on hold that dropped Tipu Sultan chapter from Class 7
State primary and secondary education minister Suresh Kumar on Wednesday claimed that he had seen reports in the media about the revised syllabus and said that it had not been finalised.
The Karnataka government which had come under fire by the opposition for dropping a chapter on Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan from a Class 7 textbook has decided to put the revised syllabus on hold. Opposition parties on Wednesday pointed out that it was not just the chapter on Tipu Sultan but also lessons on the life of Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed which had been dropped.
While the opposition parties had alleged that it was a part of the creeping saffronisation of education, the Karnataka Textbook Society Director Made Gowda had defended the move on Tuesday. He said that it was just rationalisation as a part of a 30 percent reduction in syllabus. Gowda had also pointed out that since the number of academic days had been reduced from 220 days to a mere 120 days because of the ongoing pandemic, the syllabus had been reduced proportionately.
State primary and secondary education minister Suresh Kumar on Wednesday, however, claimed that he had seen reports in the media about the revised syllabus and said that it (revised syllabus) had not been finalised. “We don’t even know how many days would be available for the current academic year, so how can we finalise the syllabus?” the minister said, adding that he had directed his department to withdraw the revised syllabus which had been uploaded on the Department of State Education Research and Training website.
Asserting that there was no question of belittling any person or historical incident, the minister in a note said that the effort of the government would be to build and unite rather than divide the society.
Earlier, the leader of opposition in the assembly, Siddaramiah, claimed that the official government was taking a backseat and the true Sangh government was coming to fore.
“If they try to foist the secret agenda of the Sangh and destroy the aspirations of our constitution, the Congress won’t tolerate it. We will be forced to agitate,” said the Congress leader.
