Correction notes in 7 days of ministrys green signal
Errors in textbook
HARUN UR RASHID
Three months have passed since free textbooks were distributed, but students are yet to get correction notes of the mistakes found in this years books.
Students and teachers said they are facing problems while going through the erroneous textbooks distributed among students of Class I to Class IX.
When the mistakes were found out, the government faced severe criticism from different quarters. As a repercussion, the education ministry made two officials of the National Curriculum Textbook Board (NCTB) officials on special duty and formed a committee to investigate the matter.
The committees findings are yet to be made public. Soon after the mistakes were discovered, the NCTB said it would send the correction notes, but nothing has been done so far.
A senior official of the NCTB recently said that the correction notes would be sent to the schools within seven days after getting the nod of the primary and mass education ministry. However, he could not say what method would be used to send the correction noteswhether it would be hard copy or soft copy.
Everything would be finalised after a meeting with the ministry, the official said.
NCTB sources said the correction notes would not be lengthy as they would be provided only for major bloomers like the poem titled Adarsha Chhele by Kusumkumari Das in the Bengali book of Grade III, where the whole poetry was wrongly edited and distorted.
The NCTB said it would not send the correction notes regarding spelling mistakes. Teachers had informed the Board that they do not have problems with such errors as they can correct the mistakes themselves.
Bikasan Khisha, headmaster of Bangaltali Government Primary School in Rangamati, told The Independent that they are facing serious problems while teaching students as they live in a remotearea where all facilities are not available.
Were trying our best to correct the mistakesourselves. But whenever we get major mistakes,were baffled and dont know what to do. Were
waiting for the correction notes from the government, he said. We would issue correction notes for seriousmistakes in the textbooks. The spelling mistakes arenot so serious. The teachers have informed us about it. Well be holding a meeting with the primary and mass education ministry in this regard. We hope to send the corrections within seven days, NCTB chairman Prof. Narayan Chandra Saha told The Independent yesterday (Tuesday).
Nothing has been finalised about how the correction notes would be sent. Were thinking in terms of both hard copy and the website of the Directorate of Primary Education. Everything would be settled at the meeting with the ministry. But we want to do it as early as possible, he added.
Teachers said the government should havetaken the matter seriously and issued the correctionnotes when the mistakes were found out in thebeginning.
The government found two major errors. Thefirst one is a wrong use of words in a moral advicein the Hindu Religion book for Class III, saying do not heart anybody, whereas it should be do not hurt anybody.
The other is the poem Adarsha Chhele. The rhyme starts inaccurately from the first line that reads amader deshe shei chele kobe hobe instead of amader deshe hobe shei chhele kobe (When will the country have such a boy).
Following the mistakes, the government suspended two officials of the NCTB and assured that such mistakes would be reduced next time.
This year, the government has distributed 36,21,82,245 books among 4,26,35,929 students of the pre-primary level to Class IX. Last year, 33,37,62,000 books were distributed among students.
