A map of India with the list of Indian States, Union Territories and capitals, barring that of Andhra Pradesh, printed at the end of a Telugu medium textbook for Environmental Studies of Class 4, by the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has stirred up a hornet’s nest, with leaders of political parties and teacher unions up in arms against it.
The SCERT printed bilingual textbooks for easy transition of students from Telugu to English as a medium of education in schools.
In the Environmental Studies textbook (Telugu medium- “Mana Prapancham’) for the academic year 2020-21, a map given at the end of the book, shows the space meant to mention the capital of Andhra Pradesh state as blank.
This has enraged a few Opposition party leaders and representatives of teacher unions. BJP leader Dinakar Lanka said the Indian map showing A.P. without a capital was as good as saying that the State does not have a Chief Minister.
‘Shameful act’
He said it was a shameful act of distorting facts through textbooks. He alleged that it was a deliberate act and demanded resignation of the Education Minister and senior officials of the Education Department. He said the Centre had released ₹2,046 crore for implementation of the 21 projects as part of developing Amaravati as a smart city, but the YSR Congress Party had not spent any money for the purpose.
“Textbooks should be put through a thorough scrutiny to avoid errors in the content or spelling mistakes by the editorial board before sending them for printing. The fact that such grave mistake occurred reflects the level of laxity,” said S.P. Manohar Kumar, State secretary of United Teachers’ Federation.
Representatives of a few other teacher unions have not ruled out a political angle to it. “Given the obsession of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government with the three-capital formula, one should not be surprised if it turns out to be a deliberate act,” said a leader of another teachers’ association.
“It is possible for such mistakes to occur in the first batch of books that goes for printing. We will rectify it in the next batch of books to be printed from June,” said B. Pratap Reddy, Director, SCERT. He, however, showed the English version of the lesson and the map where Amaravati has been mentioned as the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
