Tripura to include more details on Mahatma in text books

Agartala: Succumbing to the opposition Congress party's pressure, the
Left Front government in Tripura on Wednesday announced that more
details on Mahatma Gandhi and environment would be included in the
state's school text books.

"From the next academic session, Gandhiji's contribution to India's
freedom movement would continue to be dealt with adequately as was
done earlier in the school text books in Tripura," Debatosh Datta,
director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training
(SCERT), told reporters here.

Following the assurance, Congress leaders withdrew their decision to
launch a hunger strike on Wednesday protesting the replacement of
Mahatma Gandhi's name with that of communist icon Vladimir Lenin in a
Class 5 textbook in the Left-ruled state.

The opposition party has also been condemning the state government for
not adequately incorporating environmental and global climate change
aspects in the text books.

Datta said "The state government has also decided to include more
topics to sufficiently deal with environment in the geography portion
of the text books when they are reprinted for the 2012 academic
session."

He also said that the state advisory council for implementation of the
Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act-2009 would be
reconstituted soon.

Three more committees will be formed shortly to supervise and
scrutinize the contents of the school text books, he added.

The opposition parties have also been alleging that the school texts
books were being prepared only by people close to the ruling Left
parties.

Congress leaders led by leader of the legislature party Ratan Lal Nath
had planned a hunger strike on Wednesday morning close to Mahatma
Gandhi's statue near Raj Bhavan here.

"Despite protests from all quarters, the Left Front government in
Tripura has been trying to give a communist twist to the educational
system and its curriculum," Nath told reporters.

"In a textbook for Class 5 the names of Socrates, Abraham Lincoln,
Karl Marx were retained and Lenin's name inserted in place of Mahatma
Gandhi," Nath said.

The SCERT director said, "We did not erase the name of Mahatma Gandhi.
His name and life sketch were detailed in a separate chapter of the
same book, deleting from the common chapter. Mahatma's biography was
given with more elaboration in the book compared to previous years."

"The topic on Gandhiji was included in one chapter in the history
portion of the revised text book for the current academic year instead
of two chapters as contained in the previous text books. The decision
was taken in view of the objectives of lessening the burden of
students contained in the guidelines of the NCERT (National Council of
Educational Research and Training)," he added. IANS