SCHOOLBOOKS TO BE OVERHAULED | Content related to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be dropped, account of student uprising will be added

Agencies DHAKA

Bangla and English textbooks for primary and secondary schools are set  to see  some major changes, including the dropping of some contents related to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Contents on the student-led mass uprising are likely to be included in the textbooks for classes five to nine, said sources at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). Six texts and proses on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be dropped from English textbooks of classes six to nine, while four write-ups on the July uprising are to be added. 

Three proses and poems on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman might be dropped from Bangla textbooks of classes six and seven, and four write-ups on the July uprising are likely to be added in their stead. A content each on Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Titumir will be removed from the class six Bangla textbook. 

It has also been decided that five contents written by Selina Hossain, two by Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, one each by Syed Shamsul Haque, Rokonuzzman Khan, Nirmalendu Goon and former bureaucrat Kamal Chowdhury, along with others, will be removed.

The Daily Star quoted NCTB Chairman Prof AKM Reazul Hassan saying, "Exaggerated contents about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are being removed from the textbooks. One leader, one country -- that's not what it is.

There were other leaders, such as Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, Maulana Bhashani, and Ziaur Rahman, and there is no scope to underestimate their contributions."

He added that some contents on Bangabandhu, such as on the 1969 mass uprising, the 1970 election, and the March 7 speech in 1971, still remain in many of the textbooks.

About the removal of contents on Maulana Bhashani, Hassan  said, "It might have been removed from one textbook, but was included in another." Regarding the removal of content on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain from a class seven textbook, he explained, "Another piece on her has been added but in a different textbook."

Changes in English textbooks

Two texts -- "Son of the soil" and "Mujib in School days" -- on Sheikh Mujib, adapted from "Unfinished Memoirs", an autobiography by SheSheikh Mujibur Rahman, have been dropped from the class six English textbook, while a poem -- "The Magic E" -- was also removed.

A new write-up titled, "Our Pride", a passage on Victory Day, and a poem called "The Chaos" will be included in the textbook.

Two texts -- "Bangabandhu's love for sports" and "Bangabandhu's responses to natural calamities" -- will be removed from class seven's English textbook.

Another write-up "Bangamata: our source of inspiration", on the life of Bangabandhu's wife and Sheikh Hasina's mother Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, will be dropped from same book, while two write-ups titled "A New Generation" and "Our Winners in the Global arena", on student-led mass uprising, will be included.

A content titled "Bangabandhu and Bangladesh", on Sheikh Mujib's role in the Language Movement, his historic March 7 address at Suhrawardy Udyan, his declaration of independence in the first hours of March 26 of 1971, is also going to be dropped from the class eight English textbook.

Texts like "Women's Roles in The Uprising" and "Human and Development" will be added to the textbook.

A write-up titled "Father of the Nation", which deals with Bangabandhu's family during the 1971 Liberation War, his return home from captivity in Pakistan, his time at the UN and others, is likely to be dropped from the class nine English textbook.

On the other hand, a content on the graffiti art during the student mass uprising and two other write-ups -- "Sense of Self" and "Loneliness" -- are set to be included in the same textbook.