Revanth Reddy-led Congress government caught in delicate position in Telangana, following a blooper in the Telugu textbooks’ foreword and workbook that thanked former Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao and his Cabinet colleagues for their guidance and advise,
Textbooks carrying previous year’s foreword referring to KCR as the Chief Minister were used in this year’s books. Books for classes 1 to 10, carrying old forewords, were also distributed to students of the state-run schools as they reopened on June 12 after the summer break.
Government sources claimed that the officials initially sought the textbooks to be returned but now suggested pasting the foreword page on the backside of the (inner) cover page so that the reference to the previous government is not visible.
However, officials tried to cover up stating that a particular textbook was not distributed to students as some rectifications are to be done. But they did not elaborate. The School Education Department is contemplating disciplinary action against State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director M Radha Reddy against her for dereliction and negligence of duty.
The Telangana State United Teachers Federation sought the state government to conduct an inquiry and take action against officials who are responsible for the error. The Federation General Secretary Chava Ravi alleged that the error was due to the negligence of the officials of SERT.He said the government should inquire into the matter and take action against those responsible.
However, the Opposition BRS attacked the Congress government for allegedly withdrawing textbooks meant for distribution to government school students as they contained reference to KCR. BRS MLA and former Education minister P Sabita Indra Reddy asked whether it was justified to “withdraw the books or tear off the pages or paste another page on it because they had KCR’s name.”
