Continue with old syllabus for now, CM tells PSEB

Tuesday, 30/10/2018

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CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday announced to launch a stir to force the Congress government to apologise for the alleged insults to the Sikh Gurus in the Class 12 history textbook of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), in an apparent move to deflect people’s attention from anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot’s Bargari.

In its core committee meeting in Chandigarh, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the party leaders will perform ‘ardaas’ (prayers) at the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of Sikhs, on November 1 before launching the protests “to bring the chief minister Amarinder Singh and the Congress government on their knees”.

The party alleged that the new textbook has inappropriate remarks about Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Hargobind, Guru Tegh Bahadur and the tenth master Guru Gobind Singh.

The core committee announced that the details of the protest plan will be announced in Amritsar after the ardaas.

“The CM and the ruling Congress should apologise to the Khalsa Panth for having prepared sacrilegious study material. Criminal cases should be registered against those directly responsible for this,” Sukhbir said addressing the media after core committee meeting that was also attended by former CM Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC president Gobind Singh Logowal.

“The new book containing these insulting portions must be banned. It should be immediately withdrawn and replaced with the old books which had been in use for decades. Our stir will continue till the Congress bends on its knees before the Panth,” he said.

The experts’ group comprising eminent historians was constituted by the state government in May after alleged discrepancies cropped up in Classes 11 and 12 history books.

The group headed by Prof Kirpal Singh and has JS Grewal, Indu Banga, Pirthipal Singh Kapur besides SGPC representatives Balwant Singh Dhillon and Inderjeet Singh Gogoani as its members. CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday directed the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) to continue with the old history textbooks for Classes 11 and 12 till the completion of the review by the expert group.

The directive has come after the Akali Dal pointed out discrepancies in the new textbooks. In May, an expert group led by Prof Kirpal Singh was formed by the state government to rectify discrepancies in the syllabi of history for Classes 11 and 12.

A government spokesperson said the CM had asked the education minister to ensure a comprehensive review by the expert group, taking into consideration all the complaints and suggestions. The CM had also directed the minister to ensure that PSEB doesn’t release individual chapters of books and only a textbook properly vetted by the expert group and the government is published, said the spokesperson.

He said the state government was committed to ensure that students in Punjab receive proper instruction in history. The history taught to them nust be factually correct, the spokesperson further said.