Breathing a sigh of relief over the ‘text book image’ controversy that provoked an outrage among the Muslim community in the state, the Director of School Education, in a press release here today has clarified that “No such objectionable photograph has been included in the government prescribed text book of social studies.”
“The objectionable image depicting a man carrying a gun in one hand in Quran on the other has actually been published in a question bank prepared and published by VGS Brilliant Series Publication which is a private entity. This piece of publication is available offline and online with a title “Real Life beyond Text Book. Hence, appropriate action will be initiated against the publishers,” said the release.
In another communiqué passed by the Director School Education, Telangana to the Secretary to Government, School Education Department, it was also stated that “The SCERT, Telangana has examined the issue and found that the image portraying a person carrying gun in one hand and Quran on the other denoting as ‘terrorist’ is not from the prescribed State Government Text Book of Class VIII, Social Studies.”
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“After an enquiry it was found that the image posted on Twitter is from a question bank of Class VIII social studies prepared and published by VGS Brilliant Series which is a private publication. Further the image posted is irrelevant to Chapter 11(B). The concerned question banks are available Offline while the online mode carries the same with a title ‘Real Life beyond Text Book’ however without the name of the publisher,” the communication said.
The communication also requested the government that “Since the objectionable photograph is not from the government publication, it is requested to initiate appropriate action against the responsible publication as per law.”
It is pertinent to mention here that, the despising image portraying Muslims as ‘Terrorist’ in an academic book of social studies stirred an outrage among Muslims community that prompted the government to initiate a probe in the matter.
