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Hinduism textbooks: Many wrongs don’t make a right
The Education Department’s Publication Division keeps making glaring mistakes in Hinduism textbooks issued to schoolchildren, the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) has charged.
ACHC General Secretary V. Kandasamy said there were more than 700 mistakes in the Hinduism textbooks printed for students from grade 1 to grade 11 in the past two years.
They lamented that the errors kept recurring despite the mistakes being brought to the notice of the Education Ministry.
Last week, after an ACHC delegation met Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, a committee was appointed to look into the complaint and rectify the mistakes. It comprises officials of the National Institute Education (NIE), the ministry’s Tamil School Development Branch and the Advisory Board on Hindu Religious Affairs (ABHRA).
The responsibility of developing the curriculum lies with the NIE while the Education Publication Department edits, proof reads and prints the text books.
Easwaran Kurukkal, a member of the ABHRA, said that although the errors were pointed out several times, the ministry had been lax in rectifying the mistakes.
He said that apart from spelling errors, the textbooks contained sentences with confusing meanings. In some places, there are contextual and ideological mistakes.
In several instances, the absence of a diacritic (a sign which when written above, below or on the side of a letter indicates a difference in pronunciation which when unmarked or differently marked) gives sentences entirely different meaning and pronunciation.
The Kurukkal said: “Contextual errors give the wrong message, especially to children in lower grades. For exampale, the text book says, ‘Emmai pettror emmadhu thai thandhayar ena solla ke’lvi pattu ulo’m’ — meaning, ‘we have heard that it is being said that our parents are our father and mother’.
“This is wrong. There is error in meaning and content. The message given to the children is that because others said that their fathers and mothers are their parents, they believe it.
“Also the text books includes 38 stanzas of the Kanda Puranam (a literary epic in Hinduism ) giving some account of the career of Lord Skanda or Murugan.”
The Kurukkal said that to teach one stanza a teacher needs around 20 minutes. But with only two periods of religion lessons a week or 60 lessons a year, teachers are finding it difficult to teach all 38 stanzas, in addition to other lessons in the curriculum.
The problem is that there is no coordination among the authorities who prepare the syllabus. The MoE, the NIE, the ABHRA and the Publishing Division should be brought under one umbrella when deciding on the content. ‘Each one is acting on its own’, he said.
The ABHRA has around 25 members and every three years new members are appointed. Although the Board is required to meet every two months and discuss issues, it last met on September 20 this year after a gap of ten months.
The meetings were postponed because of the non-availability of the Education Minister, some members said. However, others said the minister’s presence was not important for the board to meet.
Eventually, when the meeting was held on September 20, with Minister Karyawasam being present. Following the discussion on the errors, the minister appointed a committee to look into the issues and meet the board again the following week.
K. Balasunderam, a member of the ABHRA, said the volume of the textbooks for grade 6 and 7 was extensive because of the inclusion of redundant material in the syllabus.
He said the books were heavy and a burden on the children.
Another problem, he highlighted was the lack of suitable teachers to teach the Hindu religion. He said that although the vacancies had to be filled by dharmachariya teachers, graduate teachers have been recruited for the job.
Mr. Balasunderam said a graduate in arts or science was not qualified to teach Hinduism. “Only those who have offered Hinduism as a subject at the Ordinary level or Advanced Level examinations qualify for the post. Also they should hold the ‘dharmachariya’ title.”
In the Eastern Province, a controversy arose last week after 86 Hinduism teacher vacancies were filled with graduates no sooner the deadline for the applications for dharmachariya teachers ended. When the problem was brought to the notice of Minister Kariyawasam, he extended the period by one month. Applications now close on 31 October.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s Tamil School Development Branch Education Director, S. Muralitharan claimed that most of the mistakes in the textbooks had been corrected.
“We have corrected around 627 mistakes and in the newer edition (second and third),” he said, assuring that next year’s textbooks would be error-free. But the ACHC disputes the claim. Its General Secretary Kandasamy said only some mistakes had been corrected. “Our recommendations have not been considered. Every year they consult us but our views are not taken into consideration,” he said.
Meanwhile, H. Indraselvan, a teacher at St. Leonard’s Tamil School in Nuwara Eliya, said Hinduism syllabi were not catering to all sects of the Hindu community.
He said the text books largely taught the ‘Saiva neri’ with the focus being Lord Shiva, worshipped by the Brahmins. Lord Shiva, he said, was worshipped largely in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Besides, the Saiva neri was originally written in Sanskrit and not in Tamil.
Earlier text books were based on the Tamil text of the Hindu Saivam which contains the six orthodox schools of Vedic philosophy which includes the worship of Krishna, Murugan and goddess Shakthi.
Also there is a dearth of teachers to teach children to sing ‘Thevaram’ the Hindhu Tamil devotional songs, he said.