O/L textbooks to be written again sans mistakes

By Isuri Kaviratne

All school text books in which factual errors have been identified will be removed from next year with the Education Ministry taking over the writing of school text books, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said. A Ministry selected qualified committee of 12 members for each subject will write the books and another committee of 12 members will edit them, the minister said.

"We have formed separate committees for proof reading and reading the first copy printed to make sure there were no flaws in it," he said. The committee set up to write the new books and to edit the old ones is half way through the process, The Sunday Times learns. The move came after a series of factual errors were found in the textbooks which were already in use among school children.

Some of the mistakes detected were:

• The nine great qualities of the Lord Buddha (nawa arahadi budu guna) listed in the 6th lesson in the Grade 6 book on Buddhism were listed as ten qualities by dividing the 6th great quality into two. The quality of being an incomparable Lord who can control others was taken as two in accordance with a series of poems in the Budugunaalankaraya written by Ven. Wettewe Thera.
• The description of the Eight Precepts includes a wrong wording of the Third Precept.
• Prince Deega Gamini had been removed from the story of King Pandukabhaya with a mere note saying he was the father.
• The well-known story of Viharamahadevi being sacrificed to the sea and being carried by the waves to the kingdom of King Kavantissa too had been deleted and instead it was indicated a proposed marriage between them had taken place.
• The first discussion of Anubudu Mihindu Thera and King Devanampiyatissa too had been presented with mistakes and do not show the king to be as brainy as history records him, though the main purpose of the discussion was to check whether he was knowledgeable enough to accept the religion.

Kelaniya University History department head Prof. Chandana Abeyratne said that though some people think the mistakes referred to here were not worthy to be considered seriously, they will have an impact on the next generation's opinion of the country. "When we read the book we feel like questioning the credentials of its writers as they do not show any signs of knowing the subject," he said.

Prof. Abeyratne said when he along with a lecturer of the same Department was asked last year to edit the History textbook, he said the book had to be re-written as there were too many mistakes in it."For the children's sake the Government should take some action.

“Otherwise there won’t be any hope for the future generation as the children will come out of schools without a proper knowledge on the history of the country," he said. Educational Publications Commissioner General N. Dharmasena said. Rs.1500 million will be spent on printing 300,000 copies of new school text books for 2008.

"That includes the salaries we pay for the writers and the editors of the books," he said. Each committee tasked with writing a book comprises a university professor on the particular subject and qualified lecturers and teachers. "The present system is a failure. It became clear in the classrooms when the books were being used.

“But the Education Ministry doesn't have any responsibility over writing and editing of the books as they were done by the private sector," he said adding that this year, after identifying the mistakes, the ministry had taken over writing the books.