BENGALURU: A day after the state government dissolved the textbook committee he headed and said it would re-examine some of the content the panel had introduced, its chairman Rohith Chakrathirtha told STOI that their work was already over and there's no feeling of being "let down". Excerpts:
The decision to dissolve your panel comes after criticism from various quarters. Do you feel let down?
No. Our work is already over. We have made our recommendations. The entire book is not being revised. Some had concerns about a few words here and there. Those will be changed. There will be no extensive revision to the recommendations we had made.
Your views on the controversy surrounding the process of revision...
The controversy was created by some fringe elements, media and so-called educationists. We've followed the guidelines issued by the education department to carry out our work. I am only responsible to the government.
There are allegations that the process was not democratic and transparent...
Is there any guideline that specifies how a textbook revision has to be done? Can anybody show it? The allegations are based on the propaganda put forth by some people and the media is blindly lapping it up.
So, how was the work carried out?
The committee was formed in September 2021 and then the guidelines were issued. The committee met every now and then and went through the books in detail, following which the revision was done. The books are in the public domain. We have not hidden anything.
