Yesterday Indian National Congress alleged that Goa’s Education Department has published the Marathi Class II textbooks by carrying incomplete national anthem. According to the opposition party, the Class II Marathi books titled ‘Gomant Bharati’ carry incomplete Indian national anthem. And the recall was necessitated as last two lines of the anthem got deleted in the books.
Today Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Goa government said that it will recall all those 13,000 Class 2 Marathi textbooks that contained an incomplete version of our national anthem. Director Nagaraj Honnekeri said that a “technological” error led to the mistake. State Council of Educational Research and Training said, “In our original CD there was no mistake. But maybe, while printing due to some software or other problem, last two lines of the anthem got deleted”.
According to him, “To rectify the mistake, all those textbooks titled ‘Gomant Bharati’ will be recalled to replace the erroneous page with a corrigendum and adding fresh books will be given to the students as soon as possible”. Mr. Nagaraj Honnekeri also said, “No additional expenditure will be incurred by the Goa education department for reprinting the 13,000 pages of the books because the mistake was in the printer”.
Yesterday Opposition Congress said that the error in the national anthem is an insult to the national anthem and the state government should fix accountability for the mistake. The latest controversy comes from a debate over whether an increasingly assertive brand of nationalistic pride is stifling civil liberties. Last year the Supreme Court (SC) asked all the cinemas to play the Indian national anthem before a film is screened for the love of the motherland. And after that, the debate was sparked.
A senior official of the State Education Department told, “It has been decided by the education ministry to reprint one page of the book which had errors and it will be circulated to all the schools”. He said the erroneous printing of page on the book had cut off some lines of anthem leaving it incomplete”.
Although the news has highlighted in the media that opposition parties are trying to make an issue for some political gain but if you analyze it in detail, you will find that it is the technical mistake- not in the printing machine, it is the technical mistake of our society and in our education system. And our habit is that not to recheck anything. Technically before distribution of those books and after printing of the first book, someone should be there to check whether it is as per the expectation or not. But unfortunately, it has not been done. Books have been printed and distributed without ensuring the final checklists. And that is why often we see mistakes in question papers, even in board exam also.
