Poor representation of concepts, glaring spelling and syntax errors and the use of over simplistic ideas while explaining concepts of political science — this is what the revised textbook for 'History and Political Science' for Class X under the Maharashtra State Board is all about, point experts.
While explaining the policy of reservation under the chapter on 'Working of the Constitution', the book states that the 'policy of reservation of seats is meant for those sections of the society who have been deprived of opportunities for education and employment for a long period of time', without any mention of the word 'social exclusion' that remains the key basis for the policy in the country.
Dr Mrudul Nile, Associate Professor at the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, said that excluding the social basis of reservation challenges the basic premise of the constitutional provision. "Not providing the rationale behind the policy of reservations can be detrimental to social cohesion. The current explanation in the book has no mention of the history of social discrimination, which students would wrongly learn if not taught with proper reference," added Nile.
Along with misplaced explanations of concepts, the book is marred with glaring spelling and syntax errors. For instance, 'split' in parties is written as 'spilt' in the parties, 'pursue' is written as 'persue' and the acronym for the Right to Information (RTI) Act is wrongly mentioned as 'R.T.I'.
Dr Shrikant Paranjape, Chairman of the Civics Subject committee that drafted the textbook, said: "The text was initially written in Marathi and later translated to English, which might have led to wrong translation. We will fix the issue and ensure that the next edition does not contain these errors."
Sunil Magar, Director, Balbharti, said: "We have not received any complaints about mistakes in the said textbook. However, if there are such errors, they will be rectified."
ZERO OUT OF 100
- 'Constitution of Indian' instead of 'Constitution of India' in the introduction
- In the exercise 'What will you do?' students are told that Voting is our duty as well as a responsibility without further context
- Question: Which movement in India led to the filing of Public Interest Litigation and the Judiciary had to give a decision over PIL?
- 'Art' instead of 'Art.' as an acronym for Articles in the constitution
