Unsubstantiated claims while narrating sensitive parts of history, factual errors and spelling mistakes, in textbooks released recently for various classes by the Tamil Nadu government, have cast doubts over whether they have achieved the intended standards.
The sentence formation and language in these textbooks, which are intended to revise the old syllabus, are of poor quality, according to a section of teachers. “There are several spelling mistakes, including wrong usage of similar sounding consonants. The English in the textbooks for English-medium students is bad,” an English teacher pointed out.
While narrating the course of the 1857 revolt for the students of Class VIII, the Science and Social Science textbook, in Page 166 of Term-I, Volume-III for English medium, contends: “The Muslim leaders and Maulvis sought the opportunity of establishing the Muslim rule in India after turning out the British”, without substantiation.
When asked about the contentions made in the textbook, Professor Sucheta Mahajan, Chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, said: “This is untrue and is a distortion. Historians should produce evidence when they make such observations.”