The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has decided to bring necessary amendments to sections of textbooks amid widespread criticisms and discussions about various alleged mistakes and inconsistencies.
In a notification issued on Friday, it has been said that along with the withdrawal of two books – “Onushandhani Paath” and “Onushiloni Paath” – for grades VI and VII, necessary amendments will be brought in three more books.
However, it was not specified which chapters of the other three books would be revised.
The authorities will remove the section on evolution from the withdrawn book. The books will be included in the textbooks of grades IX and X with some revisions and omissions.
Research on the curriculum shows that there have been two books each on “History and Social Science” and “Science” in class VI and VII. One part of it is named “Onushiloni Paath (Practice Book)” and the other part is named “Onushandhani Paath (Research Text)”.
Out of this, two books of “Onushandhani Paath” on History and Social Science will not be taught in both the classes.
According to the NCTB, this year's academic activities would be completed with only one book, “Onushiloni Paath”, under History and Social Science for both classes.
According to the NCTB notification, along with the withdrawal of the two books, necessary revisions will be made in some chapters of the “Onushiloni Paath” of the History and Social Science subjects of the two classes and the “Onushandhani Paath” book under science for the sixth graders.
In the three books (apart from the withdrawn two), the remaining chapters will continue to be taught, the notification said.
It has also been informed that the educational institutions will be informed about the amendments in the books soon.
The controversial parts
Out of the two books that have been withdrawn, the “Evolution” section discussed on pages 21 and 24 of the sixth class History and Social Science book sparked controversy in the social media and media.
Besides, on page 113 of the story “Khushi Apa” in the history and social science practice book of class VI, there is a discussion on humans not descending from monkeys.
Apart from this, controversy was raised on social media about the discussion of transgender issues on pages 51 and 52 of the seventh grade science exercise book.
Even though textbooks discuss the issue of human misunderstanding of evolution, the controversy is created by dissiminating misinformation on social media.
Social media also demanded that the section on “evolution” be removed from textbooks. In order to avoid these controversies, NCTB made the announcement of the withdrawal of textbooks on Friday.
The government took the decision following a meeting with the curriculum apex body and subject specialists on Thursday night. Following the meeting, the NCTB issued a notification on Friday.
The notice states that necessary revisions will be made in some chapters of the history and social science books. Nevertheless, the rest of the chapters in the books can still be taught to students.
The educational institutions were informed about the corrections Friday night.
‘Read before you judge'
The education minister on Friday urged all to read the recently distributed textbooks and to judge those only after that.
"Religion is a sacred thing. Is it fair to spread falsehood about this? First, read the textbooks yourself, then judge," Dipu Moni said.
While talking about the criticisms of different textbooks, the education minister said: "Some are saying this should not be there or that should have been excluded. We have already said that the students of classes six and seven would get two new textbooks next year.”
“There are no anti-Islamic items in these books. We give priority to people's sentiments and respect that. Is it fair to spread falsehood regarding Islam? Never allow these things. Please keep one thing in mind, those who are the activists of Sheikh Hasina, will never do anything anti-Islam," she added.
Mistakes, wrong information
According to NCTB officials, the textbook curriculum body regularly works to find structural and factual errors, outdated information, as well as grammatical and spelling mistakes. However, educators continue to criticize the NCTB for not spotting some mistakes in textbooks over the years.
The class 6 English book for the academic year 2023 has many grammatical mistakes and spelling mistakes, while the history book has factual errors.
Moreover, allegations of plagiarism have been brought against the class VII science textbook writers, which say several parts of the book were directly copied from the National Geography website. However, it was later found that the information was taken from a research work published by PLOS Biology in 2011.
A chapter in the book, "Bangladesh History and World Civilization", of class 9 and 10 gives misleading information that the Pakistan Army carried out torture and destruction in Bangladesh from March 26 to December 16, 1971. The fact is that the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight on the night of March 25 that year.
On January 17, the NCTB issued corrections to nine mistakes, including the aforementioned examples.