Andhra Pradesh Government decides not to delete Telangana related Lessons from Text books

Updated on: Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken cold decisions on deleting some lessons relating to Telangana from school textbooks. Last month, on August 22, Andhra Pradesh Government had passed an order directing the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to cut out lessons that contain references to Telangana or Telangana writers and personalities but kept it abeyance on August 31 and withdrew it altogether on September 4.

Among the lessons initially sought to be deleted were a eulogy written by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, the first Chief Minister of Hyderabad state, and a lesson on the peasants struggle against the Nizam’s rule.

It all started with human resources development minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao stating that “lessons which are not having native content should be deleted.” Accordingly, the Andhra Pradesh Government School Education Department the and director of SCERT Director issued an order (RC. No. 279/B/C&T/SCERT/2014 Dated 22/8/2015) stating that about 17 lessons that are non-relevant, beyond the comprehension of the learners and those having unfamiliar words need not be taught to pupils.

The lesson relating to Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was an appreciation titled ‘Nene yerigina Burgula’ written by Narasimha Rao was to have been scrapped from the class 10 Telugu Textbook (page 58-65).
Similarly, a lesson titled ‘Khanijaalu, ganula tavvakam’ was sought to be deleted from the social studies textbook for Class 8 as it referred primarily to the Singareni coal mines in Telangana.

Within 12 days of the order, the SCERT director released another note stating, “All the District Educational Officers in the State are hereby informed that there are no changes in the present textbooks from Class V to Class X in all subjects.” Minister Srinivasa Rao himself said, “We have not asked to delete any lesson of Telangana from textbooks of Andhra Pradesh.”

Andhra Pradesh Government decides not to delete Telangana related Lessons from Text books

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