Jumbling up words to give out misleading information to students seems to be becoming the Gujarat State School Textbook Board’s (GSSTB) forte.
After drawing the ire of many by describing Jesus as ‘haivaan’ (demon) in a Class IX Hindi textbook, the board has done it again – this time with a class IV textbook in which the word ‘roza’ is described as an “Ek chaotic aur sankramak rog gismo last aur kai aati hai (an infectious disease that results in diarrhoea and vomiting)”.
According to reports, the gaffe was found on page number 13 of the textbook, under the definitions section of the third chapter titled ‘Idgah’, which is a story written by Premchand.
After calling the blunder related to the Jesus reference a “typographical error”, the board admitted its mistake in this case too.
As per a Times of India report, the board’s executive director, Nitin Pethani, pointed out how the blunder was the result of a confusion between the words ‘roza’ and ‘haiza’ (cholera) ‘roza’. He called the error a “grave mistake”.
He said that this did not reflect any intention to hurt religious sentiments, adding that the mistake may have been made during the data-entry phase.
He was further quoted by Indian Express as saying:
We will issue a correction for Hindi-medium schools… Not more than 15,000 copies of this textbook were published due to limited number of Hindi-medium students.Nitin Pethani, executive director of GSSTB
To prevent a repeat of such mistakes in the future, he said that all textbooks would undergo a review.
The state’s education minister, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, also reacted to the issue, calling it a “serious mistake” and asserting that the person behind the error would punished.
The organisation Right to Education Forum from Ahmedabad is reportedly planning to file a complaint with the board and the state government in this regard, as it demands action against those behind such mistakes pertaining to religion.
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