Prof Vidyadhar Amrite (retired), a former member, board of studies of Balbharti and State Board, claimed that this year too the board had not come up with an error-free geography textbook for class X.
According to Prof Amrite, the approach to teaching geography in class X had deliberately been changed from "integrated to regional". Another objection he raised was to the maps-cum pie-diagrams which do not give any indication about some of the important crops—spices, tobacco, tea etc—in the regions. He also said there were technical faults in the maps.
The State Board had sacked members of the Board of Studies citing mistakes in last year's standard X geography textbook as well as other class X textbooks. However, the names of those who had been sacked have been mentioned in the reprinted edition of the standard X geography textbooks, he said.
According to Prof Amrite, the pie-diagrams do not give important information on crops like tea, tobacco, spices, coffee, fruits, etc. He feels such misleading diagrams should be deleted.
According to Prof Amrite, the approach to teaching is not about an integrated India, but region specific. He said: "In the regional approach, students do not get an integrated picture of India. Our experts have divided India into physio-graphic regions like mountains, plateau and plains. Another objection is to the maps-cum-pie-diagrams which have technical faults. In one map, Vindhya Parvat (mountain) which should be shown to the north of Narmada, is shown to its south. Similarly, Pennaru River in Tamil Nadu, an independent river, is shown as the tributary of Tungabhadra."
Despite of repeated calls, GK Mhamane, chairman, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, remained unavailable for comments.
Errors in textbooks last year:
On May 22, the Board of Studies panel was given show-cause notices and on May 23 all the members were sacked.
In the geography textbook, there were errors in the maps, as also grammatical errors.
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