The omission of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution printed on the cover of the class 10 social studies textbook in Telangana has sparked a row. However, corrected textbooks will be available only in September.
Speaking to News18, Chava Ravi, general secretary, Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation, said: “After a few social studies teachers noticed the mistake, we met the SCERT director and secretary of school education to raise a complaint. They said that the mistake was not intentional. Irrespective of whether intentional or unintentional, we believe that it’s a big blunder.”
The new textbooks were distributed on June 20, the teachers noticed the mistake on June 21, and the complaint was raised on June 22. “Since five lakh books have already been printed, the state officials told us that the mistake will be corrected only in the second batch of books to be printed in September. For this, they have said that they will send an erratum to the headmasters of all schools where the books have been distributed. I do not think this is a feasible exercise,” added Ravi.
Telangana’s State Council of Educational Research and Training director M Radha Reddy later in the day issued directions to district education officers to ask headmasters and principals of all high schools to ensure that the image of the amended Preamble is downloaded and pasted on the covers of the class 10 social sciences textbooks, and also file compliance reports.
When we asked S Prabhavathi, a social studies teacher at a government school in Bhadradri Kothagudem, about the importance of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’, she said: “In this age, it is very important that young minds know the word ‘secular’ present in the Preamble. It teaches us to have tolerance towards all our fellow countrymen and women. Similarly, as the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ widens, the word ‘socialist’ is very important too. More checks and balances need to be in place before publishing a book.”
The SCERT has said that it printed the old Preamble inadvertently, where both these words were not present. When the Constitution was drafted in 1950, the Preamble did not have the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’. They were added in 1976 through the 42nd Amendment.
However, commentators have demanded that the books be reprinted as “the two words are the pillars of our Constitution”.
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