Following controversy, history books of Punjab board to be withdrawn

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 9

A six-member oversight committee has recommended replacing controversial Punjab School Education Board history textbooks for Class 11 and 12 from the next academic session.

The committee, instituted by Chief Minister captain Amarinder Singh, recommended the change at its meeting on Friday after they agreed that facts were “distorted in the books, particularly with the use of wrong language”, and that the entire syllabus had to be changed for the 2019-2020 academic session to correct the mistakes.

However, there were be no change in the syllabus for this year's session, and students will be asked to make use of old books in the market printed by private publishers.

Confirming the development, chairman of the committee, Prof Kirpal Singh, said there were serious reservation regarding discrepancies in content of certain chapters. The committee members now meet on June 21 with specific inputs on the book.

The suggested changes will be discussed in the meeting and the changes agreed upon will be incorporated in the new books.

Other members who attended the meeting in the PSEB Mohali office included Prof Indu Banga, Prof JS Grewal, Balwant Singh Dhillon, Prof Prithipal Singh Kapoor and Inderjeet Singh.

Committee members have shown serious reservations with the language in the chapters. Without giving specific details, a senior member of the committee said, “We respect the efforts of the team that worked on the textbook released earlier. However, it is not wrong to say that certain pieces of basic information have been fiddled with. Use of appropriate language in describing personalities and religious texts does need a serious study.”

All reports compiled into the master file will be submitted to the office of the Chief Minister.

The CM had formed the committee following the controversy about important chapters on the lives of the gurus being deleted from the new books.