NCERT missive to Goa education board chief AGENCIES
NEW DELHI — The NCERT on Thursday shot off a letter to the Goa Education Board chief demanding an explanation on why history and Hindi textbooks for class 10 were withdrawn. The chairman of the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education of Goa, Mr Bhaskar Naik had last week said that the decision to withdraw the NCERT book was taken in view of "24 mistakes" and objections raised on a picture of a French Commander shown smoking. In its letter, NCERT spokesman, Mr Bishnu Charan Patro termed as totally false, baseless and misleading Mr Naik's remarks about mistakes. He also contested Mr Naik's claim that the NCERT had admitted to the book containing the mistakes in an affidavit before the Delhi High Court. "NCERT has never filed any affidavit in any court nor has it ever admitted any mistake in relation to the said history textbook for class ten titled India and the contemporary World-II," he said. Mr Naik was asked to give the specific reasons behind the withdrawal of the history and Hindi textbooks and furnish all the details point by point with documents relating to NCERT''s reported "admission" of mistakes. About objections on the picture of General Henry Navarre, Supreme Commander of French Armies in the history book, the NCERT spokesman said it is a "historical" photograph given in the context of the chapter on the nationalist movement in Indo-China and had nothing to do with smoking or has it anything to do with encouraging students to smoke. "Modern technology cannot be used to erase the cigarette from the photo which would be considered as distortion of historical facts," he said. Meanwhile, the chairman of Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Mr Bhaskar Nayak today said that the board has not received any communication from the NCERT, New Delhi, seeking clarification as regards the board withdrawing Hindi and history textbooks prepared under the NCERT syllabus, for the ongoing academic year. It may be recalled that the board had withdrawn the books as they contained a number of factual and grammatical errors, and replaced them with the books prepared by the Maharashtra Pathya Pustak Mandal. http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=070458