Even five years after seven new districts in Gujarat came into existence, they are yet to be acknowledged in the Class 6 Social Science textbook of the Gujarat Board. In the chapter on "Gujarat: Location, Boundary and Physiography", the map of Gujarat only mentions 26 districts, and seven newly formed districts have been given a miss.
The textbook was printed by Gujarat Council for Education, Research and Training (GCERT) in 2012. In 2013, Aravalli was split from Sabarkantha, Botad was created from parts of Ahmedabad and Bhavanagar, Chhota Udepur was split from Vadodara, Devbhoomi Dwarka was split from Jamnagar, Mahisagar was created from parts of Kheda and Panchmahal, Morbi was created from parts of Rajkot, Surendranagar and Jamnagar districts and Gir Somnath was split from Junagadh.
When DNA spoke with TS Joshi, director, GCERT, acknowledging the same, he said, "GCERT published this book in 2012 when these new districts were not yet formed. We had no idea of their inclusion either. Also, we cannot just put any maps in the textbook. Designing a map is a long process and the Survey of India in Dehradun undertakes the work. They do a detailed survey and accordingly provide us with maps which we include in the textbooks. We have written to the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks to make necessary changes in the new edition of the textbook which will come out in 2019."
He added, "The present textbook does not have district-specific information. Just that the names of the new districts are not mentioned, so, Gujarat as a whole should be looked at. We also believe that teachers would understand and make students in their class understand."
Commenting on the issue, city-based sociologist professor Gaurang Jani said, "Facts should be facts. Even if new facts are added after the book was released, changes should be made. The districts came into existence five years ago. Teachers here are not sensitive about such things. They need to undergo proper training on how to be sensitive while writing a textbook."
Past errors:
In a Class 9 Sanskrit textbook, it mentioned that Sita was abducted by Ram. Instead of the word abandoned, abducted was used. The board officials had admitted it to be a translation mistake as the same was not there in the Gujarati textbook.
In 2017, a Hindi language textbook had used the word 'haivaan' (demon) before Jesus Christ instead of intended word 'bhagwan' (God) in a passage in one of its chapters. The blunder was immediately rectified in the online version of the book available on the website and the controversial word was removed.
EXPERT SPEAK
GCERT published this book in 2012 when these new districts were not yet formed. We had no idea of their inclusion either. Also, we cannot just put any maps in the textbook. Designing a map is a long process and the Survey of India in Dehradun undertakes the work, said TS Joshi, director, GCERT.
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