Kerala to bar education panel member over handbook error on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Monday said the panel member responsible for a factual error about Subhas Chandra Bose in a teachers’ handbook draft would be barred from future academic work.

In a Facebook post, Sivankutty admitted that a "historical inaccuracy" had crept into the description of Netaji in the draft of the revised Class 4 Environmental Studies teachers’ handbook. He said a member of the Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) panel was responsible for the error.

Once the matter was brought to notice, the SCERT was directed to correct the mistake and reprint the handbook with accurate historical details. The corrected version has since been uploaded on the official website, he added.

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“The state government’s approach is not like that of the Centre, which distorts historical facts for political purposes. Throughout this curriculum revision, we have followed the policy of presenting historical facts that uphold constitutional goals realistically to children, and we will continue to do so,” Sivankutty claimed.

The minister further said the SCERT has been instructed to debar the panel member involved in the mistake from future academic activities. His clarification came amid media reports that the Class 4 teachers’ handbook had wrongly stated that Netaji fled to Germany, "fearing the British."