KALPETTA: Inaccuracies in the Social Studies textbook prescribed to fourth graders and the initial digital draft of the teachers handbook under the Kerala syllabus have sparked outrage among educators, who warn that they risk distorting children’s understanding of India’s history and freedom struggle.
Chapter 2, titled India Ente Rajyam (India My Nation), of the textbook, is littered with errors. An activity suggests that Sarojini Naidu was the first woman president of the Indian National Congress (INC). In reality, it was Annie Besant. Sarojini was in fact the first Indian woman to preside over an INC session.
Similarly, the book says that Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army, though historical records show it was first launched in 1942 by Captain Mohan Singh with support from Rash Behari Bose’s Indian Independence League.
The errors extend to maps as well. In one activity, a map of India fails to mention Assam and Jharkhand, yet students are asked to name the states by observing it.
The teachers handbook compounds the blunders. The early draft erroneously claimed that Subhash Chandra Bose “fled to Germany fearing the British.” Following criticism, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) edited the handbook and uploaded a revised version, but the printed textbooks distributed to students remain unchanged.
“My students first spotted the errors in the map,” a government school teacher from Kalpetta, Wayanad, said. “It was while doing the prescribed activity that students themselves noticed the names of Assam and Jharkhand missing from the map. Later, on closer inspection I found more mistakes. Chapter 2 is considered the first structured lesson for students on our country’s history and independence movement.
We have been discussing the mistakes in our WhatsApp group for the last few days. SCERT officials were notified about the errors. However, they only managed to carry out changes in the handbook. The textbooks are already in students’ hands,” the teacher said, on condition of anonymity.
The teacher also flagged issues in other subject textbooks. “Errors appear in maths textbook, too. Shapes and colours used in exercises have been mixed up over the pages. These may seem minor, but they affect the learning process,” the teacher added.
SCERT director Jayaprakash R K admitted to the errors. “We noticed the mistake on Subhash Chandra Bose in the teachers handbook. Since it was a draft, we corrected it and published the new version on the website. However, the printed textbooks with errors are already in circulation. Teachers will be instructed to make corrections in class, and the books will be reprinted before the next academic year,” he said.