A chapter on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, which was included in the Karnataka state syllabus during the last revision, will be dropped this academic year. This decision was taken at a meeting on educational reforms here on Tuesday, June 6, by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and School Education and Literacy Minister, Madhu Bangarappa.
Siddaramaiah and Madhu said steps would be taken to undo the changes done by the previous BJP government while revising school textbooks and implementing the National Education Policy (NEP).
After the meeting, Siddaramaiah directed the officials to form a committee to study and revise the chapters included in the textbooks by the BJP government.
‘Textbooks distributed for this academic year’
According to sources in the Education Department, a circular on the revision will be issued soon. But since textbooks have already been distributed to students, no proper revision will take place now. “Textbooks have already been distributed for this academic year, so revisions are unlikely to take place as the minister stated that classes should not be disrupted. However, teachers will be instructed to omit those lessons,” the sources said.
Ahead of the 2022-23 academic year, state syllabus textbooks were revised. The most notable and controversial revision was the inclusion of a chapter on the RSS founder in the Class X Kannada textbook. The then Opposition Congress strongly criticised the move accusing the BJP government of encouraging “saffronisation” of education at the school level.
