BENGALURU: A humorous post by Malayalam actor Kunchacko Boban on social media resulted in a political war of words between the ruling party and the opposition in Karnataka over the quality of textbooks.
On Monday, Kunchacko posted on his Instagram account a photo from a Karnataka textbook. The page had his photo for an illustration of a postman, from his movie Oridathoru Postman, where he played a postman. The post was followed by a caption in a lighter vein: “I finally managed to get a government job in Karnataka. Thanks to the prayers of the postman who used to deliver letters in earlier years.” The post went viral.
The media caught up with the story and assumed it to be a Karnataka state syllabus textbook as it explains the words in English, Hindi, and Kannada. However, it was from a private publisher in Hubballi.
DK Suresh, MP, tweeted the report lambasting the government for low-quality textbooks. “The standard of education is crumbling under the BJP government. Students already have a reduced syllabus. No supervision of the government over teaching. Now, the textbooks have images taken off from the internet instead of well-researched report by textbook preparation committee. Where are these textbooks being prepared (@BC Nagesh and Suresh Kumar S)? Are they being done at the Keshav Krupa or at the education department? Today, entire state stands ashamed infront of the nation due to BJP’s incompetence. (sic)”
Following this, the education department swung into action to find out whether it was actually from any of its textbooks. By Monday night, it was confirmed that the picture was sourced not from any textbook for classes 1-10 produced by the government’s Karnataka Textbook Society and that it was not part of the curriculum here.
Education minister Nagesh said: “This is not a textbook from the government. Everyone should get their facts right before making allegations.”
S Suresh Kumar, former education minister, took to social media to checkmate DK Suresh. “Do not be in a hurry. Haste takes away reason. This is not an official textbook published by our education department, but by a private publisher from Hubballi,” he said.
